cursus honorum

In the Roman Republic, the sequence in which politicians held the major magistracies. The ascending order in which the offices could be held was quaestor, praetor, consul, and censor.

The nonobligatory offices of tribune of the plebs and aedile generally followed the quaestorship. At first the sequence was regulated by tradition and later it became statutory. Although they were not always strictly observed, there were minimum ages for the offices: in the late republic, 30 for the quaestorship; 39 for the praetorship; and 42 for the consulship.