Editing Promagistrate (section)

=== During the Punic Wars ===

Commanders were often prorogued during the [[First Punic War]] (264–241 BC). During the [[Second Punic War]], Rome started to assign private citizens both ''imperium'' (military authority) and assign them to ''provincia'' (here meaning military tasks). These ''privati cum imperio'' were unable to triumph, probably due to their lack of an official magistracy. The legal authority for this emerged directly from the sovereign powers of the Roman assemblies who were then able "to select any man[,] whether or not he had ever been elected to office[,] and make him the commander of any ''provincia'' they wished".{{sfn|Drogula|2015|p=220}} These ''privati cum imperio'' had titles ''pro consule''{{sfn|Drogula|2015|p=225}} or ''pro praetore'', in place of regular magistrates.

The first instance may have been in 215&nbsp;BC after the losses at [[Battle of the Trebia|Trebia]], [[Battle of Lake Trasimene|Trasimene]], and [[Battle of Cannae|Cannae]] when [[Marcus Claudius Marcellus]] was elected suffect consul in the place of [[Lucius Postumius Albinus (consul 234 BC)|Lucius Postumius Albinus]], deceased.{{sfn|Drogula|2015|p=221}} However, he was forced to resign when the [[augur]]s detected flaws in his election; even so, the people passed laws to invest him with ''imperium'' and assigned him to take a consular army regardless.{{sfn|Drogula|2015|p=221}} Some scholars and argue instead that Marcellus' just-completed praetorship meant he was just prorogued.{{sfn|Drogula|2015|p=221}}

The clearest instance is in the assignment of [[Scipio Africanus|Publius Cornelius Scipio]] (later ''Africanus'') to Spain in 211&nbsp;BC before he had held any magistracy. After the deaths of his father and uncle in Spain, no consul or praetor wanted to take up the province. The people invested Scipio with the command and the necessary ''imperium'' and ''auspicium militiae'' regardless.{{sfn|Drogula|2015|p=222}} After Scipio's victory in 206&nbsp;BC, two more ''privati cum imperio'' were dispatched to the peninsula, which continued under such command until the creation of two new praetors in 197&nbsp;BC made it possible to send annual magistrates.{{sfn|Drogula|2015|p=223}} Generally, prorogation became almost the norm for the ''provinciae'' of Sicily, Sardinia, [[Hispania]], and the [[Roman Navy|naval fleets]] due to the lack of sufficient annual magistrates.{{sfn|Gruen|1986|p=215}}

The expansion of promagistracies shattering the connection between military command and magisterial office, allowing any aristocrat so empowered by law the power to exercise military authority without any official status within the city's normal civilian government.{{Sfn|Drogula|2015|p=223}} Another impact of this wartime expedience was separating "magisterial precedence" from the magistracy itself, creating something akin to a military rank, evident in the jockeying of magistrates over the specific status of their prorogation: eg, desire to attain the more prestigious ''pro consule'' status.{{sfn|Drogula|2015|pp=225-8}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Drogula|2015|p=228|ps=. Re status: "one can imagine that even praetors denied a triumph might have dallied outside the ''pomerium'' for a period of time rejoicing in their own magnificence... adorned in consular splendour".}}</ref> The close of the wartime crisis and the return of annual governors also dampened the length of prorogations, allowing the senate to regain more granular control over provincial assignments.{{sfn|Drogula|2015|p=307}}  

At the beginning, there were two distinct forms of prorogation – per [[T. Corey Brennan]]'s ''Praetorship in the Roman republic'' – a ''prorogatio'' before the people to determine whether a provincial command should be extended and a ''propagatio'' from the senate in other cases.{{sfn|Brennan|2001|p=603}} But by the 190s&nbsp;BC, the senate stopped submitting decisions on prorogation of permanent ''provinciae'' to the people for ratification and eventually all extensions of ''imperium'' were called ''prorogatio''.{{sfn|Drogula|2015|p=255}}{{sfn|Brennan|2001|p=603}} After this point, the term ''prorogatio'' became a misnomer, since no ''[[rogatio]]'' (consultation of the people) was involved.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brennan|first=T Corey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7SOjAwAAQBAJ|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic|date=2014-06-23|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-03224-8|editor-last=Flower|editor-first=Harriet I.|page=34 |chapter=Power and Process under the Republican "Constitution"}}</ref> This likely emerged because the decision of ''whether'' to send commanders had been replaced to the question of ''who'' should be sent, and therefore became a routine staffing decision.{{sfn|Drogula|2015|p=255}}