Interpretationes sacerdotali tra ius publicum e ius sacrum: le procedure di nomina dei magistrati repubblicani

The paper analyzes some episodes of ancient republican Rom in which the political institutions overcame, through the priestly action, some regu-latory deficiencies in the process of crating magistrates. Among the most relevant cases, worthy of mention are the pontifical presidency of the con-cilia plebis, established after the disastrous fall of the legislative decemvi-rate, the augury responsum of 426 BC, concerning the dictio dictatoris by the tribuni militum consulari potestate, and that too of 176 BC, around to the competence of the consul suffectus to preside over the comitia consu-laria. With the help of the priestly support, the irregular situation was overcome, adapting the needs of the present to the juridical tradition. In these circumstances the sacerdotes populi Romani confirm themselves as the co-protagonists of an open and dynamic constitutional system, foreign to the generalizing (and distorting) schematizations of the Staatsrecht.