[985] The German mode of electing a king or war-leader is well known; cf. Brunner, ibid. i. 129. The assembly also elected the chiefs of the pagi (Gaue) and of the villages; Tac. Germ. 12. 3. The Celts who were not ruled by hereditary kings elected their chiefs annually (Caesar, B. G. i. 16) or for a migration; ibid. 3. The Irish kings were generally elected from particular families; Ginnell, Brehon Laws, 66. The Slavs elected their king and other officials; Kovalevsky, ibid. 124 f., 127, 129, 138 f. In Homeric Greece the kingship was generally hereditary, but the people might elect a war-leader to take command by the side of the king; Od. xiv. 237; cf. xiii. 266. There are traces of elective kingship, lasting at least a few generations, in the great majority of early European states; Jenks, History of Politics, 87; cf. 35 f.

[986] Il. i. 22 ff. For the Lacedaemonians, see Thuc. i. 87.

[987] Tac. Germ. 11. 5; Hist. v. 17. Sometimes the Germans mingled clamor with the clash of weapons; Amm. Marc. xvi. 12. 13.

[988] Caesar, B. G. vii. 21.

[989] Majority rule was unknown to primitive times. The members of the council talked together till they came to a unanimous agreement. If the Homeric Greeks in assembly failed to agree, each party went its own way; Od. iii. 150 ff. Among the Slavs the majority forced a unanimous vote by coercing the minority; Kovalevsky, ibid. 122 ff. For the Germans; Seeck, Gesch. d. Unterg. d. antik. Welt, i. 213.

[990] For the Homeric Greek assembly, see Hermann-Thumser, Griech Staatsalt. 67 f.

[991] Il. i. 11 ff.

[992] Ibid. i. 135 ff., 320 ff.

[993] Ibid. vii. 345 ff.

[994] In Italy, Livy i. 45. 2; 49. 8.

[995] This right is proved by the fact that the death of a king freed the neighboring states from their treaty obligations to his community, e.g., the Fidenates after the death of Romulus; Dion. Hal. iii. 23. 1; the Latins after the death of Tullus; Dion. Hal. iii. 37. 3; various neighbors after the expulsion of the last Tarquin; Dion. Hal. viii. 64. 2; cf. Rubino, Röm. Verf. 175, n. 2. At the time of the Caudine disaster (321 B.C.) the Samnite leader assumed that the Roman consuls were competent in their own right to conclude a definitive peace; Livy ix. 2 ff.

[996] Among the Quadi the right to declare war belonged to the council, not to the assembly; Amm. Marc. xxx. 6. 2. With the Saxons the will of the nobles was equivalent to the will of the people; Beowulf, cited by Seeck, ibid. i. 217. 7, see also his notes on p. 531. The Sabine senators (senes) are represented as responsible for the continual wars of their people with the Romans; Livy ii. 18. 11. In general the leading men and the senate were able by their own oath to bind the community; Caes. B. G. iv. 11; cf. 13. A chief might work his will by packing an assembly with men on whom he could rely; Tac. Hist. iv. 14. The Grand Duke of Russia, relying on his comitatus, sometimes went to war without consulting the people; Kovalevsky, Mod. Cust. and Anc. Laws, 142.

[997] Leist, Graeco-ital. Rechtsgesch. 130, 136 f. Under favorable conditions the assembly acquired sovereignty, as at Athens and for a time in Russia; Kovalevsky, Russian Political Institutions, 17. Schrader, Reallexikon, 923 f., following Mommsen (cf. also Post, Grundlagen des Rechts, 130; Cramer, Verfassungsgesch. d. Germ. u. Kelt. 61 et pass.), is altogether wrong in supposing the assembly to have been originally sovereign.

[998] Tac. Hist. iv. 64. Charlemagne suppressed the assemblies of the Saxons except for receiving communications from his missi and for the administration of justice; Cap. de Part. Sax. i. 70. 34 (Boretius 26. p. 68).

[999] Ginnell, Brehon Laws, 42.

[1000] Od. iii. 214 f.; xiv. 239; xvi. 75, 95 f., 114; xix. 527.

[1001] In Homeric Greece; Il. i. 231 f.; iii. 57. The Herulians killed their king merely because they were weary of royal government; Procopius, Bel. Goth. ii. 14, p. 422 A. Sometimes the Celtic commons massacred both magistrates and council, and took affairs into their own hands; Polyb. ii. 21; Caesar, B. G. iii. 17.

[1002] Hdt. vi. 56.

[1003] Rhetra of Polydorus and Theopompus, in Plut. Lyc. 6. This power is essentially the same as the auctoritas of the Roman patres.

[1004] Fustel de Coulanges, Monarchie Franque, 598 ff.

[1005] Ibid. 638 ff.

[1006] Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, iii. 239 ff.

[1007] Kovalevsky, Mod. Cust. and Anc. Laws, 148.

[1008] The rest of this chapter is largely a reproduction of Botsford, Lex Curiata, in Pol. Sci. Quart. xxiii (1908). 498-517.

[1009] P. 2, 176.

[1010] Cic. Rep. 28. 50; cf. 23. 43.

[1011] Livy i. 46. 3; 60. 3; ii. 1. 6 f.; 15. 3.

[1012] Cic. Planc. 4. 9: “Non est consilium in vulgo.”

[1013] Cf. Livy i. 34. 12.

[1014] P. 145.

[1015] P. 235.

[1016] II. 14. 3: Τῷ δὲ δημοτικῷ πλήθει τρία ταῦτα ἐπέτρεψεν· ἀρχαιρεσιάζειν τε καὶ νόμους ἐπικυροῦν καὶ περὶ πολέμου διαγιγνώσκειν, ὅταν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἔφη.

[1017] I. 49. 7.

[1018] This interpretation, offered by Rubino, is accepted by Lange, Röm. Alt. ii. 599.

[1019] Röm. Verf. 257 ff.

[1020] The treaty with the Sabines rested on the oaths of the two kings alone; Livy i. 13. 4; Dion. Hal. ii. 46. 3; Plut. Rom. 19. Romulus of his own authority made a hundred years’ truce with Veii; Dion. Hal. ii. 55. 5 f. With the advice of the senate he solicited alliances with the neighboring states; Livy i. 9. 2. Numa personally contracted alliances with the surrounding states; Livy i. 19. 4. Tullus Hostilius made a treaty with the Sabines, the indemnity being fixed by a senatus consultum; Dion. Hal. iii. 32. 6. For other citations, see Rubino, ibid. 264, n. 3.

[1021] Livy i. 24. 4 ff.

[1022] P. 171, n. 5 above.

[1023] Livy i. 30. 7.

[1024] Cf. Livy ii. 22. 5. In 495 the consul, in pursuance of a senatus consultum, made peace with the Volscians at their request; Livy ii. 25. 6. In the same form Cassius the consul in 493 made peace with the Latins (Livy ii. 33. 4; Dion. Hal. vi. 18-21, especially 21. 2) and in 486 with the Hernicans; Dion. Hal. viii. 68. 4; 69. 2; Livy ii. 41; cf. Rubino, ibid. 266 f.

[1025] Cf. Dion. Hal. ix. 17. 2; 59. 4.

[1026] Livy iii. 1. 8.

[1027] Dion. Hal. ix. 36. 2 f.; x. 21. 8.

[1028] Livy ii. 39. 9 f.

[1029] Cf. Dion. Hal. ix. 17. 2, 4.

[1030] P. 351; cf. Rubino, Röm. Verf. 269 ff.

[1031] On the epoch-making rejection of the Caudine treaty of 321, see p. 171, n. 5. 376.

[1032] Suet. Vesp. 8; Rubino, ibid. 261.

[1033] Cf. Rubino, ibid. 260.

[1034] Ibid. 263.

[1035] Cf. i. 14. 6; 36. 1. Too much stress should not be laid on this distinction, however, as the Romans always regarded their enemy as the aggressor, and assumed that every war was undertaken for the redress of grievances.

[1036] Livy i. 32.

[1037] Ibid. i. 32.

[1038] P. 1 f., 173. The formula is extremely ancient in origin, but it must have undergone modifications in time, as is indicated by the word prisci applied to the Latins. Possibly the reference to the populus should be similarly explained.

[1039] P. 174.

[1040] Cf. Livy i. 22; 30. 3; 35. 7; 38. 4.

[1041] P. 230.

[1042] P. 171.

[1043] For the Indo-Europeans, see Schrader, Reallexikon, 655 ff.; Maine, Ancient Law, xv f., 2 ff.; Hirt, Indogermanen, ii. 522 ff. There may have been occasional legislation by the assembly in its earliest history; cf. the prohibition of the importation of wine by the Suevi (Caesar, B. G. iv. 2), which may have been an act of the kind.

[1044] Il. i. 238; ix. 98; Od. vi. 12.

[1045] Cic. Rep. v. 2. 3; Livy i. 19. 1.

[1046] Livy i. 19. 5; cf. 42. 4; Tac. Ann. iii. 26.

[1047] Livy i. 8. 1; Verg. Aen. i. 292 f.

[1048] Cic. Rep. ii. 10. 17; Livy i. 16.

[1049] On the legislation of the kings, see Voigt, in Abhdl. d. sächs. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. vii (1879). 555 ff.

[1050] Livy ii. 1. 1.

[1051] Cf. Cic. Rep. i. 2. 2. To the end of the republic resort was had in national crises to the numen deorum as the ultimate source of law; Cic. Phil. xi. 12. 28.

[1052] Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. ii. 11.

[1053] Mommsen, ibid. iii. 313; cf. Jenks, History of Politics, 89 f.

[1054] In the preceding chapter (p. 153, 157) an attempt is made to determine under what influence the curiate organization and the systematic vote were introduced into the assembly.

[1055] Cf. Gell. v. 19. 9: “Velitis, iubeatis, uti.... Haec ita, uti dixi, ita vos, quirites, rogo.” This reference to an arrogation is quoted here merely for the sake of the formula. For further citations, see Mommsen, ibid. iii. 312, n. 2.

[1056] For ut rogas, see Livy vi. 38. 5; x. 8. 12. Antiquo for “no” may be inferred from the use of antiquare to designate the rejection of a proposal; e.g. Livy iv. 58. 14; cf. Herzog, Röm. Staatsverf. i. 1108, n. 4; p. 467 below.

[1057] Lex may be related to lēgare, ligare, “to bind”; Brugmann, Grundriss, I. i. 134; Corssen, Aussprache, i. 444; Herzog, Röm. Staatsverf. i. 112, n. 1; Lange, Röm. Alt. 1. 315 (“bindende Vorschrift”). Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 308, n. 4, quotes J. Schmidt for the fundamental meaning of the root leg, “to place in order,” connecting it with English “law” (cf. θεσμός, Gesetz); cf. Kretschmer, Einleitung in die Geschichte der griech. Sprache, 165; Schrader, Reallexikon, 657; Christ, in Sitzb. d. bayer. Akad. d. Wiss. 1906. 215.

[1058] Cf. Corssen, Aussprache, i. 684.

[1059] Cf. Vaniček, Etym. Wörterb. 227; Herzog, ibid. i. 116, n. 3 (Rechtsetzen). Schrader, Reallexikon, 657, connecting ius with Avest. yaoš, “pure,” develops its meaning through (1) oath of purification in legal procedure, (2) legal procedure, finally (3) human law, right, as distinguished from fas; cf. Christ, in Sitzb. d. bayer. Akad. d. Wiss. 1906. 212 (ius = Skt. yōs). On the meaning, see further Nettleship, Contributions to Latin Lexicography, 497; Clark, Practical Jurisprudence, 16-20.

[1060] For the leges censoriae, see Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. ii. 430.

[1061] Livy i. 26. 7: “Hac lege duumviri creati.”

[1062] On the legum dictio, see Serv. in Aen. iii. 89.

[1063] Examples of leges datae are the ordinances of the kings or of extraordinary constitutive magistracies, as the triumviri rei publicae constituendae, municipal laws and provincial regulations established by Rome; cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 311 and notes.

[1064] Law of the XII Tables, cited by Gaius, in Dig. xlvii. 22. 4: “Dum ne quid ex publica lege corrumpant”; Cato, Orig. iv. 13: “Duo exules lege publica (condemnati) et execrati”; Gaius ii. 104; CIL. vi. 9404, 10235; Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 310, n. 3; Lange, Röm. Alt. ii. 598 f.

[1065] Ateius Capito’s definition in Gell. x. 20. 2 (“Lex est generale iussum populi aut plebis rogante magistratu”) fails to cover all cases, as Gellius immediately shows.

[1066] E.g. the granting of the imperium to Pompey or the recall of Cicero from exile; Gell. x. 20. 3.

[1067] Livy iv. 60. 9; cf. 58. 14.

[1068] Cato, Orig. iv. 13; n. 2 above.

[1069] Lange, Röm. Alt. ii. 598 f.; Herzog, Röm. Staatsverf. i. 111 ff. The election of a king was a iussus populi, which was equivalent to a lex; Livy i. 22. 1. For an election by the centuriate assembly, see Livy vii. 17. 12. The lex curiata de imperio was regarded strictly as an election; p. 184 ff. On judicial decisions see Lange, ibid. i. 629 f.; ii. 571.

[1070] Cic. Div. ii. 35. 74: “Ut comitiorum vel in iudiciis populi vel in iure legum vel in creandis magistratibus”; Leg. iii. 3. 10; 15. 33. Iudicia populi practically disappeared, leaving comitia legum and comitia magistratuum; idem, Sest. 51. 109; cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 326, n. 1.

[1071] The usual expression for the validity of a law is lege populus tenetur; cf. Cic. Dom. 16. 41; Phil. v. 4. 10; Gell. xv. 27. 4; Gaius i. 3. For further citations, see Rubino, Röm. Verf. 356, n. 1; Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 159, n. 1, 309, n. 3.

[1072] Cf. Livy. ix. 34. 8-10.

[1073] Dig. i. 2. 2. 2.

[1074] Ascribed to Ancus Marcius by Livy (i. 32. 2) and Dionysius (iii. 36. 2 ff.), to Romulus and his successors by Pomponius (ibid.), but destroyed in the Gallic conflagration (Livy vi. 1. 1).

[1075] Lange, Röm. Alt. 1. 314 f.; Voigt, in Abhdl. d. sächs. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. vii (1879). 559; Schrader, Reallexikon, 657 f.

[1076] The sources uniformly represent the kings as acting alone in the admission of individuals and of entire communities to citizenship. The view of Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 29, that the assembly coöperated rests upon his theory of an original popular sovereignty and of an original patrician state, neither of which has any basis in fact.

[1077] Cic. Rep. v. 2. 3; Livy 1. 38. 7; 44. 3; 56. 1 f.

[1078] Ibid. i. 43.

[1079] Ibid. i. 44. 1; cf. especially the summary condemnation and execution of Mettius; ibid. i. 28. Livy’s complaint (i. 49. 4) against Tarquin the Proud is that he decided capital cases without assessors, not that he allowed no appeal.

[1080] Lange’s view (Röm. Alt. i. 314) that under the kings there was no legislation, except the passing of the lex de imperio, cannot be proved and seems unlikely. Mommsen’s hypothesis (Röm. Staatsr. iii. 327) that under the kings the comitia were exclusively legislative, elective and judicial functions being a republican innovation, is disproved by the facts presented in this chapter. There is no reason for supposing that the republic brought to the comitia any absolutely new functions.

[1081] Schrader, Reallexikon, 662.

[1082] Greenidge, Leg. Proced. 298 f.

[1083] Cf. Livy i. 26. 8 ff.; Cic. Mil. 3. 7; Greenidge, Leg. Proced. 8, 305 ff.

[1084] Cic. Rep. ii. 2. 4; 7. 13; Livy i. 13. 4.

[1085] I. 17. 11. Cicero (Rep. ii. 13. 25), however, supposes he was elected by the people.

[1086] Cic. Rep. ii. 21. 37; Livy i. 41-6; Dion. Hal. iv. 8.

[1087] Livy i. 49. 3.

[1088] Cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. ii. 6 f.

[1089] Cf. Cic. Rep. ii. 13. 25; 17. 31; 18. 33; 20. 35; Livy i. 17. 10; 32. 1; 35. 1, 6; 46. 1; Jordan, Könige im alt. Ital. 25 ff.

[1090] Cf. Livy xxii. 35. 4.

[1091] Cic. Rep. ii. 13. 25 (Numa); 17. 31 (Tullus Hostilius); 18. 33 (Ancus Marcius); 20. 35 (Tarquinius Priscus).

[1092] The formula for the curiate law is unknown. Lange, Röm. Alt. i. 307 ff. 407 f., 459, 461 f., supposes that it not only pledged the people to obedience, but also defined the imperium and bound the king not to exceed the limitations imposed; that every constitutional modification of the imperium required a corresponding modification of the curiate act. Herzog, Röm. Staatsverf. i. 111 f., further assumes that the law contained the formula of treaty on which in his opinion the state rested, and that before the age of written documents this treaty was handed down orally through the repetition of the law. Lange’s theory, which runs throughout his great work, seems to rest on the single statement of Tacitus, Ann. xi. 22: “Quaestores regibus etiam tum imperantibus instituti sunt, quod lex curiata ostendit a L. Bruto repetita.” But this statement proves only that the quaestors were mentioned in the curiate law, and this circumstance is otherwise explained below, p. 189. That the law defined and limited the imperium is unlikely (1) because in early time, when the act had a real meaning, precise definitions were unknown; (2) because there is no evidence for it.

P. Servilius Rullus stated, evidently in his rogation, that the object of the curiate act to be passed for the decemviri provided for in his bill was “ut ii decemviratum habeant, quos plebs designaverit” (Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 10. 26)—a formula probably copied from earlier laws. From this statement and from evidence furnished below (p. 185 f.) it is practically certain that the formula for the curiate act ran somewhat like that for an election.

[1093] It is true that Cicero (p. 183, n. 2) supposes the king to have been elected by the curiate assembly, and the imperium to have been afterward sanctioned by the same assembly. This double vote of the curiae seems as improbable as it was unnecessary. We may reasonably consider the alleged first vote a mistaken inference from the later election of higher magistrates by the centuries. The assumption of an acclamation as the first stage in the process accords far better with primitive conditions.

[1094] The people claimed that the right to elect magistrates had come down to them from Servius Tullius; Appian, Lib. 112 (probably from Polyb.); Livy i. 60. 4; p. 360.

[1095] Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 11. 26: “Maiores de singulis magistratibus bis vos sententiam ferre voluerunt. Nam cum centuriata lex censoribus ferebatur, cum curiata ceteris patriciis magistratibus, tum iterum de eisdem iudicabatur, ut esset reprehendendi potestas, si populum beneficii sui paeniteret”; cf. 10. 26; Rep. ii. 13. 25.

[1096] Röm. Verf. 361 f., 379 f. For a summary of the various modern views, see Nissen, Beitr. zum röm. Staatsr. 42-6.

[1097] P. 435.

[1098] It is not probable that an official could pass the law for a colleague, the intention being that each higher magistrate should personally propose and carry it for himself; cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. i. 610, n. 2.

[1099] Leg. Agr. ii. 10. 26: “Hoc inauditum et plane novum, ut ei curiata lege magistratus detur, cui nullis comitiis ante sit datus.”

[1100] In Gell. xiii. 15. 4: “Magistratus ... iustus curiata datur lege.”

[1101] In Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 11. 29: “Tum ii decemviri, inquit, eodem iure sint, quo qui optuma lege.” In keeping with this statement is the object of the curiate act as given by the Servilian rogation (p. 183, n. 5).

[1102] Plaut. Most. 713; Cic. Off. i. 31. 111; 42. 151; Fin. iv. 12. 31; Rep. iii. 17. 27; Cat. i. 9. 21; Sest. 43. 94; Planc. 36. 88; Marc. 1. 4; Fam. iii. 8. 6; Att. xv. 3. 2.

[1103] Gaius ii. 197: “Proinde utile sit legatum atque si optimo iure relictum esset; optimum ius est per damnationem legati.” It is clear that this statement refers merely to the form.

[1104] Fabius Pictor, in Gell. i. 12. 14: “Uti quae optima lege fuit, ita te, Amata, capio.”

[1105] Cic. Phil. xi. 12. 30: “Senatui placere C. Cassium pro consule provinciam optinere, ut qui optimo iure eam provinciam optinuerit” (with all the formality usual in cases of appointment to that province); v. 16. 44: “Sit (Caesar) pro praetore eo iure quo qui optimo.”

[1106] Cic. Har. Resp. 7. 14 (reference is to the complete and perfect title with which Cicero holds his dwelling); Phil. ix. 7. 17 (a burial place granted by the state to a family with a perfect title); Lex Agr. (CIL. 200) 27: “Is ager locus domneis privatus ita, utei quoi optuma lege privatus est, esto.”

[1107] Lex Col. Gen. (CIL. ii. Supplb. 5439) 67: “Quicumque pontif(ices) quique augures c(oloniae) G(enetivae) I(uliae) post h(anc) l(egem) datam in conlegium pontific(um) augurumq(ue) in demortui damnative loco h(ac) lege lectus cooptatusve erit, is pontif(ex) augurq(ue) in c(olonia) Iul(ia) in conlegium pontifex augurq(ue) esto, ita uti qui optuma lege in quaque colon(ia) pontif(ices) auguresq(ue) sunt erunt”; ch. 66: “Ei pontifices c(oloniae) G(enetivae) I(uliae) sunto, ... ita uti qui optima lege optumo iure in quaque colon(ia) pontif(ices) augures sunt erunt.” Optima lege refers to the perfection of their right to the sacerdotal places (cf. 67 above), whereas optumo iure seems to apply to the privileges and honors attaching to these positions.

[1108] Papinian, in Dig. iv. 4. 31 (slaves manumitted in the way here described were exempt from payment to maintain their freedom, on the ground that they were emancipated in a perfectly legal way—optimo iure); Lex Salp. (CIL. ii. 1963) 28: “Ut qui optumo iure Latini libertini liberi sunt erunt” (Just as are, or shall be, Latin freedmen or freemen of best standing); Cic. Verr. II. v. 22. 58: “Quae colonia est in Italia tam bono iure, quod tam immune municipium, quod ... sit usum.”

[1109] Lex Col. Gen. 67, quoted in n. above.

[1110] Fest. 198. 32; cf. 189. 21. Applied to the censor, dictator, and interrex in Livy ix. 34. 10-12, it has reference not to amount of power but length of office.

[1111] See p. 186, n. 5.

[1112] As the Lex Col. Gen. 66 f.; p. 186, n. 1 above.

[1113] P. 186.

[1114] Magistratus optuma lege is the same as magistratus iustus; cf. Messala, p. 185, n. 6. In this connection iustus does not signify legal as opposed to illegal, but legally or technically perfect, correct; cf. for the meaning “proper,” “perfect,” Cic. Fam. ii. 10. 3 (iusta victoria); Caes. B. G. i. 23 (iustum iter); Livy i. 4. 4 (iusti cursum amnis); xxxix. 2. 8 (iusto proelio). When Cicero (Red. in Sen. 11. 27), accordingly, speaks of the comitia centuriata as the iusta comitia, he does not imply that the other comitia and their acts lack legality, but rather that they carry less weight; and when as late as 300 the patricians claimed that they alone had iustum imperium et auspicium (Livy x. 8. 9), they could only mean that their right to these powers was better established than that of the plebeians. C. Flaminius, consul in 217, possessed imperium, which he was actually exercising over his troops, but which was not iustum, for he had neglected the auspical formalities appropriate to the entrance upon the consulship (Livy xxii. 1. 5). It would be wrong, however, to suppose with Nissen, Beitr. z. röm. Staatsr. 51, that he commanded on the sufferance only of his soldiers.

[1115] Including the auspices; see n. above.

[1116] The usual expression is “de suo imperio curiatam legem tulit,” or “populum consuluit;” Cic. Rep. ii. 13. 25; 17. 31; 18. 33; 20. 35; 21. 38; Livy ix. 38. 15. According to Cicero, Phil. v. 16. 45, the senate grants the imperium to Octavianus, a private citizen. The interrex, who could not have had a curiate law, nevertheless possessed imperium (Livy i. 17. 5 f.), and the absolute imperium was granted by a decree of the senate (Livy iii. 4. 9; Sall. Cat. 29; Hist. i. 77. 22). See also Cic. Leg. iii. 3. 9: “Imperia, potestates, legationes, quom senatus creverit populusve iusserit, ex urbe exeunto;” Leg. Agr. ii. 7. 17: “Omnes potestates, imperia, curationes ab universo populo proficisci convenit” (reference cannot here be to the curiate assembly, which in this connection Cicero does not recognize as the people). For the centuriate assembly, see Livy xxvi. 18. 9: “Omnes non centuriae modo sed etiam homines P. Scipioni imperium esse in Hispania iusserunt;” 22. 15: “Centuriam vero iuniorum seniores consulere voluisse, quibus imperium suffragio mandarunt.” For the tribal assembly, see T. Annius Luscus, Orat. adv. Ti. Gracch. in Fest. 314. 30: “Imperium quod plebes ... dederat.” It is a fact, too, that the tribal assembly had power to abrogate the imperium; Livy xxvii. 20. 11; 21. 1, 4; xxix. 19. 6; cf. p. 342, 360, 367. Also from Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 11. 28 (“Vidit ... sine curiata lege decemviros potestatem habere non posse, quoniam per novem tribus essent constituti”) we must infer that had these decemvirs been elected in the regular way, by the thirty-five tribes, they would have had the potestas without a curiate law. The phrase nullis comitiis in 11. 29 (“Si hoc fieri potest, ut ... quisquam nullis comitiis imperium aut potestatem adsequi posset, etc.,”) implies that the imperium or potestas may be obtained in more than one form of comitia—either the centuriata or the tributa. In the same paragraph he asserts that on the principle followed by Servilius, whom he is assailing, any one could obtain the imperium or potestas without the vote of any comitia, for he does not consider the comitia curiata real comitia, seeing that they have degenerated into a mere form. From these passages it is clear that Cicero believed the imperium or potestas to be conferred by the centuries or tribes and merely confirmed by the curiae.