If we believe that the king during his lifetime nominated his successor,[828] there must from the first have been an interval between appointment to and entrance on office. This interval existed throughout the Republic for most of the annual magistracies; only the dictator, the censors, the magistrates created as the result of an interregnum (_ex interregno_), or those elected to fill up a place that had become vacant (_suffecti_), entered office immediately on their election. For the ordinary magistrates there was a more or less considerable interval between election and entrance on office; for the patrician magistracies it had originally been short, for the elections were one of the last acts of the consul’s annual reign, and the new consuls and praetors entered office from the close of the third century on 15th March,[829] from 153 B.C. on 1st January.[830] But in the closing years of the Republic—perhaps in consequence of a change introduced by Sulla—the elections were universally held in the month of July; and this gave a six-months’ interval between election and entrance on office for the consuls and praetors, and one of more than four months for the quaestors and tribunes, who assumed their functions on 5th and 10th December respectively.[831] During this interval the magistrate elect was _designatus_, and, though his _imperium_ or _potestas_ was necessarily dormant, he had a distinct position in the state and could exercise certain official functions preparatory to the magistracy, such as issuing edicts, which would be binding after his entrance on office.[832] Even before the _renuntiatio_ he had taken an oath of fealty to the state[833]—one, however, that could only have been exacted when the candidate was present at the election. The entrance on office was signalised by another promise on oath to respect the laws (_in leges_)—a custom which probably grew out of the power of the people to bind either present or future magistrates by an _execratio_ to respect a certain _lex_.[834] Refusal to take it within the period of five days was followed by loss of office;[835] only the Flamen Dialis, who might not swear, could claim exemption, and with the people’s consent take the oath by deputy.[836] During the later Republic we also find evidences of an oath which closed the tenure of office; the magistrates, on the expiry of their functions, addressed the people and swore that, during their period of rule, they had wilfully done nothing against the interest of the state but striven their utmost to promote its welfare.[837]