The Adyle Ship: A History of Rome's Praitors

The Adyle ship was not a required step, but it afforded the first opportunity for a man to become well known to the general public. At 39, if he had not gone broke entertaining the masses, one could become a praitor - of whom six were to be elected each year. The Praitors function primarily as judges overseeing Rome's complicated judiciary; they can also lead armies or provinces and would hold imperium in the absence of a console. A minimum age to hold this highest office was 42. Sol honestly believed that he had made his own career an institutional impossibility and hoped to be the only dictator for life Rome ever saw.