Note 637 — Chapter IV · THE MAGISTRACY

Tac. Ann. iii. 74 “Tiberius ... Blaeso tribuit, ut imperator a legionibus salutaretur, prisco ergo duces honore, qui bene gesta republica gaudio et impetu victoris exercitus conclamabantur.” The earliest instance recorded is that of the elder Scipio Africanus (Liv. xxvii. 19). At the close of the Republic the title might be conferred by the Senate. Cic. Phil. xiv. 4, 11 (to emphasise the fact that Antonius was a public enemy Servilius had proposed supplicationes) “Sed hoc primum faciam, ut imperatores appellem eos, quorum virtute ... periculis ... liberati sumus.” For who, he asks, has not been called imperator within the last twenty years “aut minimis rebus gestis, aut plerumque nullis”? (cf. Cic. ad Att. v. 20, 3).