The civil courts of appeal existing under the Principate are partly due to a survival of the Republican principle of _appellatio_ to a magistrate with the right of veto, partly to the principle (new for Rome, though not for the provinces) of delegated jurisdiction, and partly to a wholly novel principle of an appeal which can completely reverse the decisions of a lower court, which has its origin mainly in an attempt at centralising the higher provincial jurisdiction in Rome. From the decision of a _judex_ in the _judicia ordinaria_ there is now, as formerly, no appeal to any authority, although, as we shall see, the sentences of _judices_ might, under certain conditions, be reversed by the authority either of the praetor or the Princeps. From the decision of the praetor _in jure_ an appeal lies as before to an equal or higher authority,[1823] and the veto in virtue of the _major potestas_ or _majus imperium_ is naturally possessed by the Princeps. When we find Tiberius present in the praetor’s court, he may be there for the purpose of over-ruling that magistrate’s decisions.[1824] His presence seems to show that the limitations of the old _auxilium_—which must be offered in person[1825]—were preserved. Whether the veto was pronounced in virtue of the _imperium_ or in virtue of the _tribunicia potestas_ is a matter of indifference; how the veto operated is the really important point. On the analogy of the Republican intercession its effects should have been purely cassatory, and perhaps in the early Principate this principle was observed. But it must be remembered that the Princeps is in a very different position to the vetoing consul or tribune of the Republic, or even to the Republican praetor who presides over a department other than that which he controls by his veto. These magistrates can negative a decision of a lower court, but they cannot replace this negatived decision by a positive judgment of their own. The Princeps, on the other hand, has a theoretically unlimited power of civil jurisdiction.[1826] He can, therefore, supplement his negative by a positive judgment, and this unique combination of the power of vetoing and the power of judging is almost unquestionably the basis of that appeal to Caesar which leads to the reformation of a sentence. It is not improbable that the appeal came to operate in this way even against the praetor, although, even if it did not, the effect of Caesar’s veto would really be reformatory. Even the tribunes of the Republic could put pressure on a praetor to induce him to alter his formula,[1827] and we can hardly imagine the praetor withstanding the suggestion accompanying a veto pronounced by the holder of the _tribunicia potestas_. The jurisdiction of the municipal towns of Italy was, so far as it was “ordinary” jurisdiction, still under the control of consuls, praetors, and tribunes, at least as late as the reign of Nero.[1828] These municipal courts were technically those of the