Lex Maenia

Lex Maenia probably passed by Maenius, tribunus plebis, B.C. 287. It is mentioned only by Cicero (Cic. Brut. 14, 55), who says that M. Curius Dentatus compelled the Patres ante auctores fieri, in the case of the election of a plebeian consul, which was a great thing to accomplish, as the Lex Maenia had not yet been passed. The statute seems to have enacted that the senatorial auctoritas to the Comitia Curiata (by a vote of which the magistrates acquired their imperium) should be given before instead of after the assembly of the centuries in which the magistrates were elected (cf. Liv. 1.17; Cic. pro Plancio, 3, 8; Licinius Macer in Sallust. Frag. iii. p. 972, ed. Cort; Puchta, Institutionen, § 59, notes l and n; Walter, Geschichte des röm. Rechts, § 66; and AUCTORITAS).