The election of a candidate was valid only in case he received the vote of an absolute majority of the precincts. If the result was indecisive for all or a part of the offices, the city council chose an extraordinary official who bore the title of prefect with judiciary authority, _praefectus iuri dicundo_. This prefect took the place of the duumvirs, not only when an election was indecisive, but also when vacancies arose in some other way, or when peculiar conditions seemed to make it desirable to have an officer of unusual powers, a kind of dictator; or finally, when the emperor had received the vote; in the last two cases, the prefect was undoubtedly appointed by the emperor. Thus, in the years 34 and 40 A.D., the Emperor Caligula was duumvir of Pompeii; but the duties of the office were discharged by a prefect. A law passed in Rome toward the end of the Republic on the motion of a certain Petronius contained provisions regarding the appointment of prefects; one chosen in accordance with them was called _praefectus ex lege Petronia_, 'prefect according to the law of Petronius.' There were also in Pompeii priests supported by the city, but only a few of them are mentioned in the inscriptions. References are found to augurs and pontifices, to a priest of Mars, and to priests (_flamen_, _sacerdos_) of Augustus while he was still living; Nero had a priest even before he ascended the throne. Mention is made of priestesses, too, a priestess of Ceres and Venus, priestesses of Ceres, and others, the divinities of whom are not named. The suburbs could scarcely have had a separate administration; they remained within the jurisdiction of the magistrates of the city. In the case of the Pagus Augustus Felix mention is made of a _magister_, 'director,' _ministri_, 'attendants,' and _pagani_, 'pagus officials'; but apparently these were all appointed for religious functions only, in connection with the worship of the emperor. The _magister_ and the _pagani_, in part at least, were freedmen; the four _ministri_, first appointed in 7 B.C., were slaves.