In the affairs of peace it retained almost as absolute power of administration as in the preceding period.[1702] We find it, accordingly, authorizing a magistrate to vow games and the erection of a temple in the event of victory,[1703] providing for the restoration of the city after the Gallic conflagration,[1704] for the building of temples,[1705] introducing pay for military service,[1706] levying the taxes,[1707] dividing the public lands among the citizens,[1708] founding colonies,[1709] and recalling under penalty of death those who without permission had gone out to colonize a captured city,[1710] directing the appropriate college to consult the Sibylline books,[1711] and ordering the aediles to take measures against the inroad of foreign superstitions,[1712] and the consuls to punish with rods and beheading the instigators to revolt among the allies.[1713] It was in obedience to a decree of the senate that the consul, or military tribune with consular power, suspended his own imperium and that of his colleague or colleagues by the appointment of a dictator,[1714] who had power to compel the resignation of all other magistrates.[1715] Or the senate could directly order the magistrates to retire from office, with or without a scruple as to the auspices.[1716] It rewarded successful commanders with triumphs[1717] at the expense of the state[1718] and in time of especial danger it armed the consuls with absolute imperium.[1719] In the face of an opposing force so vast as here indicated, the assemblies for a time made slow headway. The development of their functions through the period between the Valerian-Horatian and the Hortensian legislation will now be followed. I. _Elective_