Praetura
The praetorship was created in around 367–366 BC to take over part of the duties of the consuls. The first man to be elected to the new praetura was the patrician Spurius Furius, the son of Marcus Furius Camillus, in exchange for the election of Lucius Sextius, plebeian leader, as one of the consuls for the year. Partisan politics greatly influenced the outcome of elections.
The elected praetor was a magistratus curulis, exercised imperium, and consequently was one of the magistratus majores. He had the right to sit in the sella curulis and wear the toga praetexta. He was attended by six lictors. A praetor was a magistrate with imperium within his own sphere, subject only to the veto of the consuls (who outranked him).
The potestas and imperium (power and authority) of the consuls and the praetors under the Republic should not be exaggerated. They did not use independent judgment in resolving matters of state. Unlike today's executive branches, they were assigned high-level tasks directly by senatorial decree under the authority of the SPQR.
Livy describes the assignments given to either consuls or praetors in some detail. As magistrates, they had standing duties to perform, especially of a religious nature. The Senate defined what senior positions were to exist before elections. Immediately after the elections, the new officials cast lots for the assignments, which were mainly provincial governorships. Eventually there came to be considerably more praetors than consuls, so inevitably the praetors took most of the provinces. A province given to consuls was termed consular. Proconsuls and propraetors joined in the lottery as well. These elected officials acted as department heads of the Roman government.
A consul or praetor could be taken away from his current duties at any time to head a task force, and there were many, especially military. Livy mentions that, among other tasks, these executive officers were told to lead troops against perceived threats (domestic or foreign), investigate possible subversion, raise troops, conduct special sacrifices, distribute windfall money, appoint commissioners and even exterminate locusts. Praetors could delegate at will. The one principle that limited what could be assigned to them was that their duties must not concern them with minima, "little things." They were by definition doers of maxima. Thus, on a military assignment, the praetor was always given the position of commanding general and was never a subordinate. This principle of Roman law became a principle of later European law: Non curat minima praetor, that is, the details do not need to be legislated, they can be left up to the courts.
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