But the people had at all times merely the final ratifying authority in these matters. The diplomatic negotiations that preceded the conclusion of an agreement with a foreign nation had ever been in the hands of the Senate. When envoys approached an _imperator_ in the field, his duty was to send them on to the consuls and their council; how far he himself entered into preliminary negotiations with them depended on his own discretion, but in the best days of the Republic he could make no definite agreement. The mode in which the Senate received the envoys from a state differed according as the community had already treaty relations with Rome, or was in a state of natural war. The permanent representation of a friendly nation—except through the vague relationship with a noble Roman house—was a device as yet unknown; but the concession was made to the envoys of such a state of receiving them within the town.[1360] The representatives of the enemy, on the other hand, had no claim to reception within the walls.[1361] The embarrassment inspired by the approach of the suspected Eumenes of Pergamus in 166 B.C. caused a passing regulation to be framed that no kings (the “carnivorous animals” of Cato) should be received at Rome in person.[1362] Towards the close of the Republican period (67 B.C.) a demand for the better ordering of business, as well as the suspicion created by the dealings of envoys lingering in Rome with the political coteries, caused a law to be passed that the month of February should be devoted to the reception of legations.[1363] As most of the envoys at this time came from states within the Roman sphere of influence, it was an advantage to the provincials to have a definite season set apart in which they could air their grievances. The most pressing demand for entering into new relations with states naturally accompanied the organisation of a province. For the immediate attention to this demand the conquering general was competent, although he was sometimes assisted by ten commissioners (_legati_) appointed by the Senate.[1364] The whole work of organisation, known as the law of the province (_lex provinciae_), bore the name of the _imperator_, and the _lex Rupilia_ of Sicily, the _lex Pompeia_ of Bithynia, and the law of Metellus in Crete preserved the memory of individual victors and organisers. The _lex_ in this case is a charter (_lex data_), not a comitial act (_lex rogata_), and when we remember that the organisation of the provinces took place during the period of senatorial ascendency, we are not surprised at the omission of the formality of the consultation of the people.