King of Rome - in The Republic

In The Republic

After the explusion of Tarquinius Superbus led only in a very limited way to the separation of the powers mentioned above.

The actual title of King was retained for the rex sacrorum, who formally remained Rome's first priest. He was forbidden any political or military career, except indeed a seat in the Senate. However, the Roman desire to hinder the kingship from becoming important went so far that even in the area of religion the king of sacrifices was formally in all but protocol subordinated to the first of the pontiffs, the pontifex maximus (whose position in origin, rather than with the name of priest, is better described as "minister of religion"), to the point that at some point in history, the Regia or royal palace at the Forum Romanum, originally inhabited by the king of sacrifices, was ceded to the Pontifex maximus. Significantly enough, one of his major appearances in the public scene was the festival of Regifugium, where he impersonated the king in his being thrown out of the City; also, the consuls themselves retained religious roles vital enough that the office of interrex was retained for the opening prayer of electional assemblies in case that both consuls had died in office, and the ritual of driving a nail into the Temple of Jupiter sometimes even induced a dictatorship. Nor was the rex sacrorum elected publicly, but chosen by the pontifical college.

The king of sacrifices retained some religious rites only he could perform, and acted as quasi-flamen to Janus. He seems to have existed until the official adoption of the Christian religion. To qualify for the office, patrician ancestry was necessary, however it was once performed by a member of a family otherwise known as plebeian, the Marcii, earning for himself and his descendants the cognomen Rex.

As has been mentioned, the administrative functions in religion, including at some point the housing in the ancient royal court, were ceded to the supreme pontiff.

The previous role of the King in choosing new senators and dismissing people from the Senate was ceded to the censors, albeit in the late republic, the first of these functions was rather limited as all magistrates down to the rank of quaestor gradually had gained admission to the Senate after the office's expiration.

The modern concept of a Head of State, insofar as the Republican times excepting the dictatorships are concerned, can but hardly be translated to Roman conceptions, but basically all other powers - the imperium - were ceded to the consuls (the etymology suggests that these were originally the King's chief counsellors) and, after the creation of the office (about 367, according to Livy, thereby at least roughly separating the judiciary from the executive), the praetors ("leaders"). According to tradition (which is disputed by historians for the first decades), the consulate was however always entrusted to two persons for hindering dominance; for emergency situations a dictatorship was introduced. Later, also proconsuls and propraetors could be given an imperium by appointment of the Senate. Whoever used the imperium to victoriously lead an army could acquire the title of imperator, which later became chief title to the Emperors, who were technically included in the system as proconsuls over most (and the strategically most important parts) of the Empire, chief senators, and popular tribunes without the title. The Republican idea that all promagisterial imperium ends upon entering the City was not observed in the Emperors' case.

At the same time, the legislation was practically passed from the Curiate Assembly to the Century Assembly (and Tribal Assembly), exception the more-or-less formality of a lex curiata de imperio which ratified the elections of the previous Century Assembly. The consuls did however retain the power to rule by ordinance.