Certain judicial and military posts were also filled by popular election. The paucity of criminal judges at Rome after the institution of the _quaestiones perpetuae_[1152] led to the appointment of an annual president of the chief court which tried ordinary crimes—that, namely, which dealt with murder and kindred offences (_quaestio de sicariis_). The magisterial position of these _judices quaestionis_ is shown both by the fixed qualification—it is generally, perhaps always, an ex-aedile that is appointed[1153]—and by the fact that, like the magistrate who takes the oath _in leges_,[1154] these _judices_ swear to observe the special law which they are administering.[1155] They were probably elected by the people in the _comitia tributa_.[1156] Subordinate military posts were also in the people’s gift, and we have already noticed how the tribunate of the legions became in part a quasi-magistracy.[1157] In the year 311 B.C. the appointment of consular delegates for the command and maintenance of the fleet was also entrusted to the tribes.[1158] These _IIviri navales_ were not annual officials, but, in obedience to the occasional character of the Roman fleet, came into existence when a war required its creation. The office seems to have become extinct by the second century B.C. More occasional still was the creation by the _comitia tributa_, in later times occasionally by the _concilium plebis_,[1159] of minor magistrates with extraordinary functions. Such were the officials for conducting a colony (_coloniae deducendae_) for the assignment of land (_agris dandis assignandis_), or for the dedication of a temple (_aedi dedicandae_). To this category belong the occasional _curatores_ for the corn-supply and the roads (_annonae_, _viarum_). CHAPTER V THE PEOPLE AND ITS POWERS We have already noticed the duality of procedure by which the powers of the people were exercised, and seen that every popular act was dependent on a _rogatio_.[1160] But different spheres of popular activity may conveniently be distinguished. They may be divided into (i.) legislative or quasi-legislative acts; (ii.) elective; (iii.) judicial. (i.) With respect to legislation proper, the Roman, like every other government which recognises the theory of parliamentary sovereignty and has no provision for a constituent assembly, drew no distinction between constitutional and other laws. But in our enumeration we may conveniently distinguish between those ordinances which altered the structure of the constitution and affected public rights, and those which dealt merely with the private relations of the citizens to one another.