To this day, New Rome operates on a direct democracy (wherein citizens elect magistrates, not representatives, and make legislative decisions). Because the rump state of Rome was composed primarily of Legion XII, the concept of power became heavily militaristic; New Rome lost much of ancient Rome’s arts, religion, and natural philosophy, but she maintained the momentum of conquest. The goal of restoring New Rome to her former glory through war was still felt in the Court legislative system preceding the Adventus Bellonariae (“The Arrival of the Flower of Bellona”).
Before the arrival of Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, the Bellonaria, New Rome’s legislative system included the Senate and two popular assemblies: the comitia cohortata and the concilium plebis.
This page is. Fucking, half as long as Chapter XXXII; The Popular Assemblies and the beginning of The Comitia Cohortata (linked above) is most relevant. If interested, Apropos canon… talks about how NRHD diverges/details canon Roman characters in the context of these politics.
n.b. The name, “Adventus Bellonariae,” is often teased for its irony: Bellona’s daughter permitted New Rome’s decline in martialism. To Reyna’s relief, the name is shortened to “Adventus” and the movement is colloquially referred to as “the Reform”. Despite the name, the Adventus was the culmination of many sociopolitical factors and a healthy amount of divine interventions (though Reyna was also the reason for the success of more improvements than she likes to take credit for).
When Rome fell, she took the Senate with her. New Rome devised ways to reform the Senate despite the significantly smaller pool of senators to choose from; by the 19th century, New Rome had an established culture of social prestige that lasted for another two centuries.
Senatorship was lifelong or until the title was transferred. Unless the senator dies without an heir, leaving the Senate without having passed on the membership was and still is frowned upon. The choice to give up one’s seat is permanent.
Romans would gain membership into the Senate by one of the following means, listed in hierarchal order.
Upon completing their service to the legion, it was expected that veterans of noble families would inherit the patriarchy from the head of the household; the responsibility would typically pass from generation to generation, but inheritance would also occur between siblings with large age gaps, widowed spouses with ineligible heirs, and so on. Turning down membership risks, if not guarantees, losing the entire family’s auctoritas—their social standing and good repute.
It’s rare for families to be represented by more than one family member outside of…
Veterans who do not inherit leadership of a noble family—this includes those who do not inherit the title (whose patriarch is currently a senator), as well as family leaders of lower-class families—but prove their valour during their stint are offered a seat on the Senate. Unlike with noble patriarchs, these veterans can turn down membership with no dishonour.
Because senatorship is optional to the honourably discharged, those who accept must also accept the responsibility of finding a successor. This successor must be a legionnaire (or probatio) from the senator’s cohort. The senator’s choice of beneficiary cannot be vetoed by anyone but the augur, but once the beneficiary has succeeded the seat, the Senate may choose to terminate their membership. Unless this happens, the successor must find a successor of their own; so on and so forth.
Honourably-discharged patricians of lower-class families earn noble status for their family through honourable discharge. They need not sponsor a beneficiary unless their family has no eligible heir, but, typically, “successors” of newly-ennobled families are considered adopted heirs, not merely beneficiaries, and will inherit the patriarchy alongside the seat.
Those who’ve served any amount of time as an elected court magistrate (with the exemption of magistrates who were forcibly removed from their position) are required to become senators after discharging from the legion. Because this service is mandatory, court ex-magistrates are not expected to find successors, though becoming an ex-magistrate’s beneficiary brings great prestige. Ex-magistrates may step down at any time, but doing so too soon is considered a grave insult to New Rome.
Non-court ex-magistrates must also join the Senate should they no longer have plans to run for future terms. Declaring one’s plans to campaign in a future election yet failing to follow through is a punishable offense.
Augury is a lifelong honour. Augurs are not magistrates and do not hold senatorship, but they have membership within the Senate. At least one augur must participate in every Senate meeting, and emeriti may join as they please; an emeritus may take the role of an augur if one cannot be present, but failure to provide an active augur for a meeting brings shame upon the Collegium (of priests). Emeriti cannot overturn the law as decisively as augurs can, but their input is unspeakably influential.
Senatorial proceeds did not experience a drastic change following the Reform, but it’s now open to accepting non-militarian members. Successors may be selected from beyond the senator’s cohort; entertainers such as gladiators, artisans such as potters, academics, and even nature spirits can become beneficiaries. Prominent individuals who have retired from their vocations receive the same treatment as those who’ve received an honourable discharge. Too, the People may now nominate and vote in new senators—regardless of the nominee’s military service.
The Senate can no longer terminate a membership without first consulting the People. If the People demand a vote to unseat a senator, magistrates must comply; the Senate may still reject a nominee, but more votes in the nominee’s favour make rejection unlikely.
The College pushed to support these changes due to remarkably favourable divinations. The College wasn’t directly impacted by the Reform; today, however, seminarians not of noble families can reasonably expect to enter into priesthood.
The popular assemblies (“popular” as in relating to the populace) were Rome’s electorates predating the imperial period. Being a direct democracy, assemblies didn’t elect representatives to represent their interests in the forum—citizens would vote on legislations themselves.
Senators cannot vote, but they influence decisions as advisors and sponsors (and, some would argue, puppeteers) of the magistrates and the voters—the soldiers and the People. Magistrates were elected from and by one of two assemblies: the comitia cohortata and the concilium plebis.
trans. Court assembly / Assembly of the Cohorts
The comitia cohortata were voting blocks made up of Cohorts I–V—active soldiers, excluding probatios. Court candidates were typically centurions, but legionnaires bearing the SPQR branding were permitted to run for office.
The minimum voting age is 13, the “legionnaire age” (the “probatio age” is 12), which is also when an individual can run for court office. Court magistrates were often aged 13–25 years old and sponsored by wealthy senatorial families. In some cases (discussed later), there would be more court magistrates than plebiscite magistrates.
That’s the gist of Reyna’s comment about “broken governance” in Chapter XXXII. You can now return to the chapter, skip to Apropos canon…, or continue reading—because both of us like to pretend we have too much time on our hands.
The cohortata elected four magistrates. These court magistrates were colloquially considered as part of their own cohort, called: Cohort Zero, Cohort Six, and/or Tata (“Daddy” or “Papa”) Court.
Tata Court was composed of:
Consuls are no longer elected from the legion. Candidates must have held an office for a full term beforehand; this prerequisite office is not restricted to magistracy, but there are limitations, still.
Because praetors are now the foremost leaders of Camp Jupiter, the title of consul is sometimes assigned to praetors in the context of the legion (hence Jason declaring himself as “consul of demigods” in The Lost Hero). The number of active praetors is at most two; tradition insists on exactly two, but court electorates can decide to ignore this through a consensus (which is what occurred with Reyna for four consecutive terms). Praetors are entitled to one lictor each.
Censors can be, and often are, elected from outside the legion. Candidates must be sponsored by an ex-consul; ex-consuls who sponsor candidates must sponsor more than one. Candidates must have served as a censorate lictor for at least one year (this opens opportunities for sponsorship but cannot be registered as sponsorships; candidates must be sponsored during their campaign).
The cohortata technically still exists, but only for praetors—Camp Jupiter decides who leads them. Although candidates may not be legionnaires, court electorates still may vote for consuls and censors.
The concilium plebis had been a real-world assembly that formed from the demand for the People’s voice to be heard; they were functionally the oppositional party, ensuring that the Senate and the cohorts weren’t just planning for more war. The plebis was made up of everyone who wasn’t in the Senate, whose family leader wasn’t in the Senate, and who wasn’t currently a legionnaire…
The plebis was composed primarily of probatios aged 13+ and lower-class families, most of whom chose to live outside of New Rome. To make up for this small pool, the cohort(s) that have no members currently holding office (there are four court offices and five cohorts) would vote in the plebis for legislative actions; however, during elections, all cohorts were restricted to the cohortata.
Not all higher-class individuals had the legal power to renounce their social standing. Patrician senators who renounced their membership would lower their family to plebiscite status; future patricians of this family could try to regain membership, but it often took a god personally vouching for them. Those who discharged with honours could not only reject membership but also choose to join the plebis; this would only affect their partner(s) and the family they started (if any), not family members of their generation and above. Even today, ex-court magistrates cannot join the plebiscites; they are either senators or part of the higher-class assembly. Naturally, willingly lowering one’s status rarely happened.
Family members of senators voted for the same magistrates but were part of a higher-class assembly, which is not detailed here. They couldn’t run for plebiscite offices, but they participated in running for and electing urban offices that plebiscite and court electorates did not.
The plebis would, ideally, also elect four magistrates—ideally. The electorate (much less the pool of candidates) was quite small, and all candidates except for tribunes needed a minimum number of votes regardless of having received the most; the plebiscites were often shortchanged on magistrates.
This group of magistrates didn’t have a fun nickname, because poor people aren’t allowed to have fun. The plebiscite magistrates are:
A plebiscite consul is now mandatory. To prevent candidates from receiving too few votes, all assemblies are permitted to vote for plebiscite consuls. An election will not end until one is seated; refer to Election Years 2007 and 2011 for specific examples. There are no new offices specific to the plebis, but plebiscites may run for certain other roles, including censorship.
Similar to the post-Adventus cohortata, the plebis can vote for candidates whose office impacts them directly, even if these candidates are not plebiscites themselves. Therefore, the plebian voice also decides who becomes appointed as the higher-class consul.
The mid-2010s mark the establishment of a support system for plebiscites who wish to campaign in New Roman elections. For those interested in learning more, please IM the Argiletum front desk or contact 415-XII-SPQR.
This section quotes previous sections for context.
The Senate can no longer terminate a membership without first consulting the People. If the People demand a vote to unseat a senator, magistrates must comply …
Conversely, reinstating one’s auctoritas remains a fickle legal issue. Frank Zhang earned “pardon” and auctoritas for his family (Shen Lun in particular), but the process of returning terminated or otherwise lost membership into the Senate is case-by-case and rather uneventful for those not involved.
Praetors are entitled to one lictor each.
Reyna initially turned down having a praetorian guard to avoid favouritism (and avoid choosing the wrong attendant, as she’d only been at Camp for a short time). Her acting lictors were Aurum and Argentum; she’d intended to appoint a true lictor eventually but never found a suitable candidate.
Finding a co-praetor was her primary concern for the legion’s wellbeing. Percy (and Annabeth, and literally everyone else) thinking she was necessarily coming onto him by extending the offer for praetorship put Reyna at the end of her rope, and she’d altogether given up on a lictor, too. Maybe she shouldn’t have mentioned the history of romantic involvement between praetors, but could anyone blame her for communicating caveats?
Pre-HoO, she rejected every one of Jason’s offers to become her lictor—lictorhood would be degrading to a son of Jupiter and vainglorious of her. This didn’t stop him from offering to be (and often acting as) her lictor, and his sincerity and persistence didn’t stop her from liking him in turn.
Those who’ve served any amount of time as an elected magistrate [must] become senators.
… ex-court magistrates cannot join the plebiscites; they are either senators or part of the higher-class assembly [which is not detailed on this page].
Jason never made his plans explicit, but everyone knew that he would disgrace his father and join the plebis after discharging from the Twelfth Legion. Even after the Adventus, the only way to prevent his shame was through magistracy.
Reyna’s first term had been a consensus, wherein the legion voted for no other praetor, thanks to Lupa and favourable divinations—and, of course, her own dignitas. Every term that followed was a consensus primarily because she and Jason grew close; the legion wished to force Jason’s hand, hoping that his care for Reyna would make him step up to save her from solo praetorship. There’s a maximum of two praetors allowed (which proved a loose law, considering The Son of Neptune), so Reyna’s solo praetorship also ensured room for Jason’s praetorship—should the legion finally find an opportunity to skip the election process and lift Jason upon their shields.
Because he’d been appointed praetor, Jason was barred from effectively using his auctoritas to empower the People.
n.b. In canon, Jason has served more than enough time (twelve out of the minimum ten years, at the start of HoO). In NRHD, he was excluded from the minimum probatio age (12) by an augury: he skipped the probatio period and became a legionnaire when he was 7—three years after being delivered to New Rome on Lupa’s back. By the time he was forcibly elected praetor, he’d been serving for eight years; two more without holding office, and he could’ve left (accurately expecting an honourable discharge) and joined the plebiscites.
Here from AO3? Click here to return to Reyna hanging out on the floor in a pool of Noemi’s blood! Or…