The Lex Curiata and the Patrician Auspices

Abstract

Cicero (Leg. 3.10) positively attests that omnes magistrates auspicium iudiciumque habento. Flawless election (iure creatio) by virtue of a popular vote sufficed for the magistrates minores {populi Romani) to acquire iusta potestas and enable them to take optimally valid auspicia patriciorum publica minora. The magistrates maiores cum imperio, however, the originalpatricii magistrates, also required a lex curiata de imperio in order to (re-)confirm that the critically important auspices they would hold by virtue of their imperium were indeed the auspicia patriciorum publica maxima, qualifying their imperium as Husturri in the process (and, by default, their entire magistracy). Although at le..