senate they conducted the discussions, and put the questions to the vote, thus exercising the greatest influence upon all matters which were brought before the senate either by themselves or by others. When a decree was passed by the senate, the consuls were usually commissioned to see that it was carried into effect; though there are also instances of the consuls opposing a decree of the senate. 2. The supreme command of the armies belonged to the consuls alone by virtue of their imperium. Accordingly, when a war was decreed, they were ordered by a senatus consultum to levy the troops, whose number was determined by the senate, and they appointed most of the other military officers. While at the head of their armies they had full power of life and death over their soldiers, who, on their enrolment, had to take an oath (_sacramentum_) to be faithful and obedient to the commands of the consuls. When the consuls had entered upon their office, the senate assigned them their provinces, that is, their spheres of action, and the consuls either settled between themselves which province each was to have, or, which was more common, they drew lots. Usually one consul remained at Rome, while the other went out at the head of the army: sometimes both left the city, and carried on war in different quarters; and sometimes, when the danger was very pressing, both consuls commanded the armies against one and the same enemy. If it was deemed advisable, the imperium of one or of both consuls was prolonged for the particular province in which they were engaged, in which case they had the title of proconsuls [PROCONSUL], and their successors either remained at Rome, or were engaged in other quarters. During the latter period of the republic the consuls remained at Rome during the time of their office, and on its expiration they had a foreign province (in the real sense of the word) assigned to them, where they undertook either the peaceful administration, or carried on war against internal or external enemies. While in their provinces, both the consuls and proconsuls had the power of life and death over the provincials, for they were looked upon there as the chief military commanders; and the provincials, being _peregrini_, did not enjoy the privileges of Roman citizens. 3. The supreme jurisdiction was part of the consular imperium, and as such vested in the consuls so long as there were no praetors. In civil cases they administered justice to the patricians as well as plebeians, either acting themselves as _judices_, or appointing others as _judices_ and _arbitri_. In criminal cases there appears from early times to have been this difference: that patricians charged with capital offences were tried by the curies, while the plebeians came under the jurisdiction of the consuls, whose power, however, was in this case rather limited, partly by the intercession of the tribunes of the people, and partly by the right of appeal (_provocatio_) from the sentence of the