We have seen how the functions of civil jurisdiction were given to a minor colleague of the consuls, and how a second colleague was subsequently added to try cases in which the interests of _peregrini_ were involved.[916] The needs for judicial magistrates could not end here. The provinces of Sicily and Sardinia, acquired as a consequence of the first Punic war, required jurisdiction, and two praetors were given them about the year 227 B.C.; two more were added in 198 B.C. for the two newly acquired Spanish provinces, thus bringing up the full number to six. A _lex Baebia_ (_circa_ 180 B.C.) enacted that four and six praetors should be elected in alternate years, probably for the wise purpose of making the praetorian government of the difficult Spanish provinces biennial; but this law was soon suspended, and six praetors continued to be annually elected until the time of Sulla (81 B.C.).[917] It is true that between 198 and 81 many provinces had been added to the Roman Empire; but the principle of administration by pro-magistrates had gained recognition while these were being created; the praetors were becoming, like the consuls, more and more city officials, and the necessity for adding to their number came from the development of the criminal law. At least eight praetors were needed for the presidency of the civil and criminal courts at Rome, and consequently two were added by Sulla to the original six. The variety of functions performed by the praetors was due to their having a general and a special character. On entering office, after election by the centuries, they were at once, as inferior colleagues of the consuls, capable of any of the duties which flowed from the _imperium_. They were then assigned some special office, some definite _provincia_; but the exercise of this did not destroy their capacity for general action. For command in war, as well as for the exercise of at least civil jurisdiction—both attributes of the full _imperium_—they required a _lex curiata_. Each had the right to six lictors, and appeared with the full number when controlling a province outside the city; but, in the exercise of his jurisdiction at home, he employed, or was allowed, only two.[918] The praetor’s specific title was derived from his province; of the two original home praetors one was known as the _praetor qui inter cives jus dicit_, or, in the colloquial phrase which became titular, as _praetor urbanus_; the other as the _praetor qui inter peregrinos jus dicit_, known finally as the _praetor peregrinus_. But both the home praetors were often spoken of as having _urbanae provinciae_ and exercising _urbana jurisdictio_.[919] Their rank was higher than that of their colleagues—hence their names were, like those of the consuls, used for dating[920]—and of the two the _praetor urbanus_ was regarded as holding the more distinguished position.[921] His duties were naturally far more engrossing than those of his colleague, and the