The _comitia curiata_, the oldest sovereign in Rome, was a mere shadow of its former self. Its main constitutional function was that of passing the _lex curiata_, which was necessary for the ratification originally of the _imperium_[1238] and, with the creation of fresh patrician magistracies, of the _potestas_ which these involved.[1239] Yet although in theory no magistracy was properly constituted (_justus_) until its holder had received the ratification of the _curiae_, we know that in the case of those with _imperium_, and we may conclude that in that of others, most of the ordinary functions could be exercised without this sanction. It was only the full exercise of the _imperium_, whether in jurisdiction, in military command, or in the transmission of office, that was in suspense until the _lex_ had been elicited. Without it the praetor could not give justice from his tribunal,[1240] the consul could not hold an assembly for the creation of his successor,[1241] and whether as magistrate or pro-magistrate could not exercise the full _imperium_ in the field,[1242] until the ambiguous wording of the _lex Cornelia de provinciis ordinandis_ made the requirement in this last particular a doubtful point.[1243] For the purpose of this conferment the _comitia curiata_ was in Cicero’s day often represented by but thirty lictors,[1244] and the same scanty attendance may have sufficed for the other formal acts which it retained from antiquity. These are the acts of the _comitia calata_.[1245] The public will and testament made at this assembly was extinct at the close of the Republic; but the _comitia_ still met, under the presidency of the _pontifex maximus_, for the inauguration of the _rex sacrorum_ and the _flamines_, and under the same guidance for the _detestatio sacrorum_ made by one who passed from his _gens_ either by an act of adrogation or by transition from the patrician to the plebeian order.[1246] The _comitia centuriata_, once known as the “greatest of the comitia” (_comitiatus maximus_),[1247] not only from its importance as expressing the sovereign will, but from the possibility of enforcing the attendance of the assembled army, always retained something of its military character and its association with the _imperium_. Its summons and presidency belong by right only to the magistrates with _imperium_. The consuls are its normal presidents for elections and for laws; the praetor approaches it for purposes of jurisdiction, and the interrex for the election of a consul. The election of magistrates with _imperium_ and of the censors was confined to this body, and we have already seen how its supreme judicial authority was asserted and infringed.[1248] The army alone could declare war,[1249] but its legislative power, though never lost, was infrequently asserted after the recognition of sovereignty in the two assemblies of the tribes which were more easily summoned and organised.