On the one hand, they were the ordinary civil judges for sales concluded in open market, for the cattle and slave markets in particular; and on the other hand, they ordinarily acted in processes of fines and amercements as judges of first instance or--which was in Roman law the same thing--as public prosecutors.

In consequence of this the administration of the laws imposing fines, and the equally indefinite and politically important right of fining in general, were vested mainly in them.

Similar but subordinate functions, having especial reference to the poorer classes, pertained to the three night--or blood-masters (-tres viri nocturni- or -capitales-), first nominated in 465; they were entrusted with the duties of nocturnal police as regards fire and the public safety and with the superintendence of executions, with which a certain summary jurisdiction was very soon, perhaps even from the outset, associated.( 11) Lastly from the increasing extent of the Roman community it became necessary, out of regard to the convenience of litigants, to station in the more remote townships special judges competent to deal at least with minor civil causes.

This arrangement was the rule for the communities of burgesses -sine suffragio-,( 12) and was perhaps even extended to the more remote communities of full burgesses,( 13)--the first germs of a Romano-municipal jurisdiction developing itself by the side of that which was strictly Roman.
Changes in Procedure In civil procedure (which, however, according to the ideas of that period included most of the crimes committed against fellow-citizens) the division of a process into the settlement of the question of law before the magistrate (-ius-), and the decision of the question of fact by a private person nominated by the magistrate (-iudicium-) -- a division doubtless customary even in earlier times--was on the abolition of the monarchy prescribed by law;( 14) and to that separation the private law of Rome was mainly indebted for its logical clearness and practical precision.( 15) In actions regarding property, the decision as to what constituted possession, which hitherto had been left to the arbitrary caprice of the magistrate, was subjected gradually to legal rules; and, alongside of the law of property, a law of possession was developed--another step, by which the magisterial authority lost an important part of its powers.

In criminal processes, the tribunal of the people, which hitherto had exercised the prerogative of mercy, became a court of legally secured appeal.