As to the nature of these military tribunes, their magistracy is for us a subject of considerable obscurity.[108] Livy says of them, _eos juribus et insignibus consularibus usos esse_, and they are also called _tribuni militares consulari potestate_; but Dio Cassius, that acute observer, who himself had sat in the curule chair, says that the military tribunes were inferior to the consuls, and that not one of them had ever been granted a triumph, though many had performed deeds which were worthy of it. This is in perfect accordance with history. We also find that a consul was never appointed _Magister Equitum_, but that the military tribunes certainly were. From this it seems to be evident that the military tribunes were no _magistratus curules_, that is to say, none of those magistrates, as Gellius explains it, who were allowed to make use of a carriage (thus we have _Juno Curulis_, whose image was carried on a car). The consuls drove in carriages to the _Curia_; the full triumph was termed _triumphus curulis_, according to the Monumentum Ancyranum on which the number of the _triumphi curules_ of Augustus is given; different from this is the _Ovatio_.[109]--Moreover, the military tribunes never had any jurisdiction; but originally the censors, and afterwards the _Præfectus Urbi_ had one, the latter probably holding likewise the presidency in the senate. This magistracy also had been abolished by the decemviral legislation; but it now again makes its appearance. The consular power was weakened in this manner, and so it was afterwards by the Licinian law; for when at that time the consulship was divided between patricians and plebeians, the prætorship was separated from it, and established as a distinct magistracy. We may understand how it was, that the plebeians preferred the election of military tribunes, even when they were not taken from their own order: their power was at all events less. According to Livy’s account, it was the senate which decided in every instance, whether consuls or military tribunes were to be elected: it is more probable that it was the curies which determined it. The mistake may have been occasioned by the ambiguous word _patres_. The military tribunate is also of a wonderfully variable character. Sometimes, but seldom, we find three tribunes; more frequently, four; but from 347 or 348, regularly whenever they occur, six; once, as many as eight, among whom, however, the two censors are included. Of the four, one is generally _Præfectus Urbi_: so that in reality there are after all only three. The claim of the plebeians to be chosen among the military tribunes is never disputed; but after the first election it is almost always eluded. How this could be done is inconceivable; Livy’s explanation of it is silly. On the one hand, it is quite possible that a compromise was made, and that the patricians said, we consent to the weaker magistracy’s being established, but