I believe that, regardless of what the Constitution may technically authorize, there exists a greater tradition; the Mos Maiorum and the Cursus Honorum. They represent the historical tradition of the ancient Republic, which I choose to follow, and which I would urge all those who follow me, not only as Consul but in any position as magistrate, to follow as well.

These traditions include the notion that one should not seek high office (such as Consul) consecutively. Thus, I don't know if it has ever been officially announced or not, but I would like to take this moment to state that I will not seek election to the position of Consul for next year.

Too, I would hope that, as the field of suitable candidates becomes larger, we adopt ever-more-stringent criteria for the election of magistrates. In our first year, such measures were impossible for sheer lack of numbers. I would hope that, as we grow, we can enforce the Cursus Honorem through the ballot box; that we would not elect a Consul that has not held the office of Praetor, etc.

In the context of the current debate about the changes to our Constitution, I'm hoping to make the statement that we need not legislate those principles that men of character and honor are willing to abide by willingly. And it is my greatest hope that it is such men are these that shall be elected to office.

As you may or may not know, Nova Roma will hold its first elections in November or December for the annual magistracies. I, Avidius Tullius Callidus, paterfamilias of one of the earlier Plebean gentes to join Nova Roma, am donning the toga candida (the white candidates' toga) and standing for election to the office of Tribune of the People.

I urge other Plebeans with some time and effort to spare to consider standing for some of the various posts in the Nova Roman government. There are the offices of Tribune of the People and Plebean Aedile which only Plebeans may hold. There also are the higher offices of Quaestor, Praetor and Consul to consider standing for, not to mention the provincial Praetorships. Please join with me in filling the offices in our Republic, we have gone without many of them for too long.

The office of Plebean Tribune sometimes has a shadowy reputation and in the last century of the ancient Roman Republic, this was deservedly the case. However gone are the days of Saturninus, Clodius, Dolabella and their ilk. I can assure you that my platform includes no "radical legislation" which lead to so many of the Late Republic's problems. My stance is one of mediation and moderation, in my view the Tribune is a liasion between the Senate, the Magistrates and the Popular Assemblies meeting with all to develope legislation that Nova Romans, Patrician and Plebean alike can embrace. I am aquainted with many of the members of the current government and am willing to work with them and any newcomers for the benefit of Nova Roma as a whole. I believe that I have the ability, the knowledge and the drive to fulfill these obligations to the People of Nova Roma with the dignity and honor such an office deserves. I hope I can count on your vote in the near future. (58-12)

Officium me vocate ! This next election I will be running for the Governor ( Praetor ) of the Great Lakes Provincia. As the Governor some of my goals will include increasing my activities in acquiring new citizens for Nova Roma, maintaining an active dialogue with as many citizens as possible and sponsoring Nova Roma events and other Roman related activities.

One of my newest ventures is organizing the means and finances to place an article, similar to the NR flyers, in my local newspaper. I figure this is a great way to get Nova Roma's message out to approximately 300,000 readers.

Well, remember me when you vote. My thoughts are for all of you- the citizens of Nova Roma. (60-12)

The first stage of the Election season is the declaring of candidacies for various positions. If you're interested in taking a more active role within Nova Roma, tomorrow, October 16th, is the first day in which prospective Candidates for an office can announce their intentions. There's still time to consider... the last day for entries is November 14th. Still, those choosing to enter an election will gain more campaign time by entering themselves as candidates as soon as they can. NOW is the time to check the "Cursus Honorum" section of the Nova Roma website, and make your decision!

Please check the Constitution of Nova Roma for information about the various magistracies within Nova Roma, and what they do.

Please do check the "Voting" section of the Cursus Honorum section for voting procedures and times.

This current election, to be voted by the Citizens of Nova Roma, will be (I believe, and will surely be corrected upon if wrong!) for the following positions:

SENIOR CONSUL, JUNIOR CONSUL - Note, these candidates must run as a team. No single applications please.

URBAN PRAETOR - There are two Urban praetors.

CURULE AEDILE - There are two Curule Aediles.

PLEBIAN AEDILE - There is one Plebian Aedile.

TRIBUNE OF THE PLEBS - There are two Tribune of the Plebs positions.

*Please*... consider your candidacy seriously! These positions go with real work, and take time and effort. These things are not just empty titles! Magistrates will be swamped with email, asked to solve problems, contacted by surface mail, generally bugged by Citizens and genuinely have to invest hours of time in most cases. All candidates should be fully prepared to be active within their magistracies.

There are some positions which will NOT be voted on by Citizens in this election, such as the Praetors of the different Provincia, which are administered by the Senate.

And please, Citizens... while elections within Nova Roma are important, the whole campaign and election procedure does not need to be a great problem or fuss. Keeping questions short, debates simple, and discussions friendly will help us all get through this with (hopefully) few headaches! (74-7)

The Quaestrix Patricia Claudia replied, "No, those are appointed by the consuls." (74-9)

Cassius agreed. "I don't believe so. Quaestors are appointed by the Consuls, or by the Senate, to oversee specific tasks. They weren't a voted position as far as I've ever seen. (Of course, with MY luck, the Nova Roma Constitution will completely disprove that...) (74-18)

Which it did. As Gaius Marius Merullus pointed out, Article III, Section 7 of the Constitution provides, "A number of Quaestors shall be elected, as determined by the Senate, to assist magistrates in their administrative and fiscal responsibilities."

Merullus further observed:

I assume, based on Marcus Cassius Iulianus' message, that the Senate has determined that no quaestors will be needed for the upcoming year.

Now, [Cincinnatus'] question highlights the fact that there seem to be differences between practice in the Roman Republic and in Nova Roma. Nisi memoria me fallit, both praetors and quaestors were elected by the people and then assigned to provinces by the senate.

I suspect that Nova Roma is deviating purposely, to avoid people being elected praetor, then not being able to do anything in any provincia because, let's say, all the elected praetors live in the same provincia or two. If you or I were elected praetors, for example, would you or I be willing to move to Russia for a year? I dont think that I'm ready for that just yet. But, how effective could we be at fulfilling magisterial duties so remotely? The same problem could arise for quaestors. (74-13)

According to Callidus, "Quaestors were elected and sometimes appointed in ancient Rome, either way, they were the most junior of the magistrates. The Nova Roman Constitution does state that they can be appointed or elected." (74-24)

Turning to another issue, Lucius Sergius Australicus asked: "Why should [candidates for the consulship] be required to run as a team? That's not how it was originally done (i.e., in Roma Antiqua). While candidates for consul often did pair up, I don't think it was required in order to run." (74-10)

To which Cassius replied:

I honestly don't have specific references to hand, but I recall reading from several sources that the Consular candidates were chosen as a team beforehand. I could of course be completely wrong!! If anyone wants to check this out on a more scholarly basis, they're invited to.

The team system does seem to make some sort of sense... at least you'd be assured of having Consuls who were in accord with each other. That's why the U.S. runs the President and Vice president as a team in modern times, yes? (74-17)

I believe that the practice in the Roman Republic was that the candidate who got the most votes became senior consul, while the one the runner-up became junior consul.

While the team system does have the merit of accord between the two magistrates, I would like to point out that, in a sense, such accord was the very last thing the ancient founders of the Republic probably sought. If they had, why bother having two consuls with equal powers? The junior consul was not a vice consul; he had all the same powers.

I believe that the system was devised within memory of the rule over Rome of the kings. The dual office of consul was probably designed to provide a balanced senior magistracy that would impede the ambitions of any single would-be king. (74-20)

Callidus observed, "Consuls on occasion stood as a team, notable examples are Crassus/Pompey and Cato/Flaccus. Often it was a field of several individuals with similar credentials. The terms senior and junior really do not apply to the Consuls unless one considers the vote count. Both elected Consuls had the same authority when they held Imperium and they both held the power of intercessio (that is the veto against the other Consul)." (74-24)

Avidius Tullius Callidus announced his candidacy for Tribune Plebis:

I urge other Plebeans with some time and effort to spare to consider standing for some of the various posts in the Nova Roman government. There are the offices of Tribune of the People and Plebean Aedile which only Plebeans may hold. There also are the higher offices of Quaestor, Praetor and Consul to consider standing for. Please join with me in filling the offices in our Republic, we have gone without many of them for too long.

I am aware that the office of Plebean Tribune sometimes has a shadowy reputation and in the last century of the ancient Roman Republic, this was deservedly the case. However gone are the days of Saturninus, Clodius, Dolabella and their ilk. I can assure you that my platform includes no "radical legislation" which lead to so many of the Late Republic's problems. My stance is one of mediation and moderation, in my view the Tribune is a liasion between the Senate, the Magistrates and the Popular Assemblies meeting with all to help develop legislation that Nova Romans, Patrician and Plebean alike can embrace. I am aquainted with many of the members of the current government and am willing to work with them and any newcomers for the benefit of Nova Roma as a whole. I believe that I have the ability, the knowledge and the drive to fulfill these obligations to the People of Nova Roma with the dignity and honor such an office deserves. I hope I can count on your vote in the near future. (76-1)

Patricia Cassia announced her campaign to retain the quaestorship to which the Senate had appointed her:

My qualifications: In the months I have served as Quaestor of Nova Roma, I have established a bank account for the organization and set up a system of regular fiscal reports to the Senate and to a fellow Quaestor, who also gets copies of all the relevant documentation so as to check my veracity. I have also begun the process of getting Nova Roma incorporated as a legal non-profit organization in the United States, so as to be able to receive tax-deductible donations. In recent weeks I have taken over management of the Nova Roma Web site.

It is my humble request that I continue to be allowed to serve Nova Roma. (76-6)

It should be noted, however, that on this occasion Graecus made an important innovation to the mechanics of campaigning by setting the example of clearly marking his campaign mailings as such in the "Subject" header.

Marcus Cassius Julianus responded immediately, "In the interest of keeping the facts known, Quintius Caecilius Metellus cannot run again for Consul in the next election. When he agreed to assist Nova Roma by stepping into the Consulship for the remaining three months of Germanicus' term, he did it on the contingency that he would not stand for re-election as Consul in the coming elections. Making sure that power does not remain always in the same hands has been a concern for us all... therefore I am voluntarily not standing for re-election as Consul this term either." (77-5)

The Senatrix and Chief Vestal Flavia Claudia Juliana observed dryly:

Oh great. We're starting our first elections with negative campaigning? Just great. Well, I guess this is how it was done in ancient Rome -- and has certainly been refined in U.S. elections for the past few years!

But if any of you candidates produce a Paula Jones, I'm outta here! (77-7)

Personally, I vote for whoever promises more bread, more circuses, bigger and better gladiatorial events, and a nice free buffet for all Citizens on election day! (77-13)

Meanwhile, Palladius followed up Caasius with a defense of Metellus:

While it is true that as a patrician I cannot vote for Tribune of the Plebs, I feel compelled to write to defend our junior consul, Quintus Caecilius Metellus against the accusations leveled against him by Antonius Gryllus Graecus, a rival of his for the position of Tribune.

Metellus was essentially accused of being in a conspiracy (I presume with me and my fellow candidate for the Consulship, Lucius Equitius) to take over one of the Tribune's positions, which is a position to protect the plebs from the excesses of those in power. The implication of Graecus was that Metellus did not run for consul because he was either afraid of running or that he is in a conspiracy to control all the positions of Nova Roma. Either idea is absurd. Metellus cannot run for consul because he respects the cursus honorum and Roman tradition (the Mos Maiorum) which prevents one from seeking such an office in consecutive terms. One of the conditions that he stated before his taking the office was that he would not run for reelection even though he did not serve a full term. To imply otherwise is to see dishonor where there is none. Metellus deliberately chose to be a plebian to defend their rights even before most patricians had joined Nova Roma. When he joined there were only three gentes, the now defunct Vedia, as well as Cassia and Iunia. Caecilia Metella could have been a senior Patrician gens but he made it *the* senior plebian gens for the reason of watching out for the rights of the plebians. Metellus is his own man and is seeking to be Tribune of the Plebs for the good of the people, not any other motive.

I hope you will forgive the temerity of a patrician speaking to you about a plebian position and a plebian running for that position but I could not let a slight go unanswered. The facts I have mentioned are not things that Metellus, out of a sense of modesty, would be able to say easily, but a third party such as myself can more easily point them out. (77-21)

Antonius Gryllus Graecus, the man who makes the magistrates speak the truth! Vote Antonius Gryllus Graecus for Tribune of the Plebs!

"They won't cheat the people!" - Antonius Gryllus Graecus (78-1)

Quintius Caecilius Metellus does not speak. They speak for him:

"In the interest of keeping the facts known, Quintius Caecilius Metellus CANNOT run again for Consul in the next election." - Consul Marcus Cassius Julianus

"While it is true that as a patrician I cannot vote for Tribune of the Plebs, I feel compelled to write to defend our junior consul, Quintus Caecilius Metellus against the accusations leveled against him" - Praetor Urbanus, Censor, Consular Candidate Decius Iunius Palladius

Who speaks for Antonius Gryllus Graecus?

"I speak for myself and the people!" - Antonius Gryllus Graecus (78-2)

Decius Iunius Palladius' forwarded message from Germanicus brings up again the issue of electing praetors. We visited this topic briefly when Lucius Cornelius Sulla asked about electing quaestors.

I might have missed something, because I do not remember the outcome of some of these discussions on electoral issues, namely:

1. Are praetors and quaestors elected? If yes, how many of each? The NR constitution, as I recall, does state that the number of quaestors to be elected is determined by the Senate. Is this done annually? Has it been done by the sitting Senate?

2. Running on joint tickets versus running as individuals.

On issue #1 and the relevance of Germanicus' message, I doubt that Germanicus' intention was that consuls should be elected from a field of candidates who had previously served in a senatorially appointed office. If one takes that view, then one believes that people who have never been appointed should not even bother running for an office. If we adopt this tradition, we'll have a small closed clique at the magisterial top of things.

Thus far, candidates for Consul have apparently made up their minds on issue #2. I, for one, would like to see some individual candidates for Consul. I may be wrong in doing so, but I associate joint candidacy with partisanship, and I am hoping that we can avoid creating parties, platforms, and other obstacles to selection of individuals based on ideas and performance. (78-7)