From the foregoing remarks of Polybius it is clear that in the political theory of his time the will of the multitude when expressed by a comitial act prevailed, in other words that the people were sovereign. Several checks on their action from the side of the senate and magistrates he mentions, especially the absolute power of life and death exercised by the consuls in war over those under their command,[2121] and the control over the citizens wielded by the senate through the management of public contracts and through filling the courts from its own number. But the most important limitation, implied throughout this discussion though never expressly mentioned, is the lack of popular initiative. The people could convene for no business whatever unless summoned by a magistrate. They could consider no other subject than that proposed to them by the president; they could take no part in the deliberation excepting in so far as the president granted permission to individuals; they could merely vote yes or no on the question presented to them.[2122] Notwithstanding the theory of popular sovereignty these conditions prevented the rise of a real democracy; they placed the assemblies under the control of the magistrates, who as a rule, including even the tribunes, were willing ministers of the senate. The bridled masses were rendered more obedient by the disasters of the war with Hannibal, and the nobles were soon to grow arrogant and violent through a surfeit of wealth and power.[2123] Under these new circumstances the docility of the commons made possible the thorough organization of plutocracy on the basis of a democratic theory of government. III. _The Era of the Completed Plutocracy, based on a Recognition of Popular Sovereignty_ 201-134 The period from the close of the war with Hannibal to the tribunate of Ti. Gracchus is marked by no such display of comitial energy as that which characterized either the pre-Hortensian age or the epoch introduced by Flaminius. In return for a spurious freedom and a pretended share in the administration the assembly became the handmaid of the plutocracy. There was, as usual, some legislation of the old kind concerning magistrates. In 198 the number of praetors was increased to six.[2124] The arrangement was modified by the consular statute of M. Baebius, 181, which provided for the election of four and six on alternate years,[2125] with the object of giving the governors of the Spains a biennial term.[2126] The greedy office-seekers by another statute brought about the repeal of this arrangement in 179.[2127] The only new office was that of the tresviri epulones, instituted by a plebiscite of C. Licinius Lucullus, 196. Their function was to attend to certain religious festivals, especially to the feast of Jupiter held on November 13. The law provided that these officials should wear the toga praetexta just as did the pontiffs.[2128]