Imperium, Promagistrats et triomphe au Ier siècle av. J.-C. : quelques affaires

Abstract

Imperium and auspicium seem to be the key elements of power of magistrates and promagistrates. They are nevertheless difficult to define and historians are discussing the meaning and the forms of acquisition of those specific skills. The first century BC, a politically troubled period, offers first hand documents that do not seem to have been modified by the imperial ideology. This paper examines some of the theoretical texts from this period and some famous political affairs, which involve the imperium and auspicium of influential people. We note that the theoretical texts should be treated with caution because they are intended to support causes whose legitimacy can be questionable. Political scandals on the other hand, involve not only relations of personal power and rhetoric but also specific issues of law and the statutes of the magistrates. Indeed, the political actual practice is probably less rigid than in the mommsenian theory. Each situation is the result of an interaction of laws, jurisprudence and formal procedures, many of which are unknown. The scandal caused by the affair of the province of Appius Claudius Pulcher (54 BC.) is not a question of abuse of authority but a subtle legal arrangement. The political and legal conflicts of the 49 year – often regarded as an actual example of Realpolitik – still betray the major role of the imperium and of the legal procedures necessary for the establishment of a legitimate power. As A. Magdelain noticed, we do not have any attestation of a law generally defining the imperium. The latter, granted to the upper magistrates and promagistrates, was specified by laws passed case by case and most likely voted by the assemblies Curiata.