[1117] Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 11. 27: “Curiatis eam (potestatem) comitiis ... confirmavit.”

[1118] Livy ix. 38 f.; Dion. Hal. v. 70. 4: Ὃν ἃν ἥ τε βουλὴ προέληται καὶ ὁ δῆμος ἐπιψηφίσῃ. To avoid unnecessary delay the sanctioning act was probably always kept free from the obligation of the promulgatio per trinum nundinum; Livy iii. 27. 1; iv. 14. 1; p. 396 f. below.

[1119] The consuls proposed the curiate law for the quaestors; Tac. Ann. xi. 22. That these inferior officials required the law is further indicated by Cic. Phil. ii. 20. 50. For the lower functionaries in general, see Gell. xiii. 15. 4. The agrarian rogation of Servilius Rullus provided that the praetor should propose the law for the decemviri agris adsignandis required for the administration of his measure; Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 11. 28.

That the magisterial helpers who were in need of the curiate law included not only the quaestors but also the lictors seems to be indicated by Cic. Rep. ii. 17. 31: “Ne insignibus quidem regiis Tullus nisi iussu populi est ausus uti. Nam ut sibi duodecim lictores cum fascibus anteire” (the remainder of the sentence is missing). Dion. Hal. ii. 62. 1 ascribes the introduction of the lictors to Tarquin the Elder. This curiate law, however, may not be thought of by Cicero and Dionysius as a mere sanction, but rather as a legislative act which called the lictors into being; cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. i. 372, n. 1, 613, n. 1.

[1120] In the opinion of Lange, Röm. Alt. i. 300 ff., the election conferred potestas only, the lex curiata imperium.

[1121] Dio Cass. xxxix. 19. 3.

[1122] Ibid.; Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 12. 30: “Consuli si legem curiatam non habet, attingere rem militarem non licet;” Livy v. 52. 15: “Comitia curiata, quae rem militarem continent.” These statements, however, are not, as some have imagined, to the effect that the lex curiata confers military power upon the magistrate.

[1123] Dio Cass. xli. 43. 3.

[1124] Cic. Fam. i. 9. 25.

[1125] Cic. Att. iv. 18. 4: “Appius sine lege suo sumptu in Ciliciam cogitat.”

[1126] Ibid.

[1127] Such an article in favor of the decemviri agris adsignandis appeared in the Servilian agrarian rogation of 63; Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 11. 29; cf. p. 186.

[1128] According to Dion. Hal. ii. 5 f., those who are entering upon an office pass the night in tents and in the morning under the open sky take the auspices. Livy, xxi. 63. 10, states that the consul dons his official robe in his own house, but neither he nor any other authority intimates that the public auspices were taken in his private house, as Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. i. 616, asserts.

[1129] Livy ix. 39. 1.

[1130] Ibid. xxi. 63. 9; Varro, in Gell. xiv. 7. 9.

[1131] Rubino, Röm. Verf. 365 ff.

[1132] Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. i. 612, n. 1.

[1133] Sall. Cat. 29: “Ea potestas per senatum more Romano magistratui maxuma permittitur, exercitum parare, bellum gerere, coercere omnibus modis socios atque cives, domi militiaeque imperium atque iudicium summum habere; aliter sine populi iussu nullius earum rerum consuli ius est;” Hist. i. 77. 22: (The senate decreed) “uti Appius Claudius cum Q. Catulo pro consule et ceteris quibus imperium est, urbi praesidio sint operamque dent, ne quid respublica detrimenti capiat.” The interpretation which includes the interrex, Appius Claudius, with those who possessed the imperium is confirmed by Livy i. 17. 5 f., who informs us that the imperium of an interrex lasted five days.

[1134] Livy ix. 38 f.

[1135] Cf. Nissen, Beitr. z. röm. Staatsr. 51 f.

[1136] XXI. 63. 5 ff.

[1137] Fest. 347. 14; p. 336 below.

[1138] Cf. Livy xxii. 1. 5 ff.

[1139] Nissen, ibid., supposes, too, that Appius Claudius, consul in 179, went to the army without a curiate law and for that reason the soldiers refused to obey him; Livy xli. 10. Livy mentions the neglect of other formalities, but makes no reference to the curiate act.

[1140] Livy xxv. 37. 5 f.; cf. xxvi. 2. 1.

[1141] Ibid. xxvi. 2. 2.

[1142] Dio Cass. xli. 43. In this instance the senate had conferred dictatorial power upon the magistrates by its supreme decree (Caesar, B. C. i. 5); that they were constitutionally in command, whereas the general direction of affairs by Pompey, however autocratic, was only informal, is expressly stated by Dio Cass. xl. 43. 5. What Nissen, Beitr. z. röm. Staatsr. 53 f., says of these magistrates’ lack of military imperium is therefore baseless.

[1143] Cic. Att. iv. 18. 4; Q. Fr. iii. 4. 6; Dio Cass. xxxvii. 47; xxxix. 65. The praetor was Ser. Sulpicius Galba.

[1144] Cic. Fam. i. 9. 25; cf. Q. Fr. iii. 2. 3; p. 417 below.

[1145] Cic. Fam. i. 9. 25: “Appius ... dixit ... legem curiatam consuli ferri opus esse, necesse non esse.”

[1146] Cic. Att. iv. 17. 2.

[1147] Cic. Att. iv. 17. 4; Q. Fr. iii. 3. 2; cf. p. 111 above.

[1148] Cic. Att. iv. 17. 3 ff.; 18. 3; Q. Fr. iii. 2. 3; 3. 2 f.

[1149] Cic. Att. iv. 17. 3.

[1150] The compact (Cic. Att. iv. 17. 2) made between Appius and his colleague in the consulship, 54, parties of the first part, and Memmius and Domitius, candidates for the consulship for the ensuing year, parties of the second part, that the parties of the second part in the event of their election should produce three augurs to testify that the parties of the first part had proposed and carried a lex curiata, or in failure to produce the witnesses should forfeit to the parties of the first part a specified sum of money, assumes, inasmuch as the evidence was not to be forthcoming till after the election, (1) that the lex curiata was not essential to holding the elective comitia, but (2) that it was highly advantageous to the promagistrate. Cicero, who often refers to the postponement of the elective comitia of this year, never intimates that the want of a lex curiata stood in the way.

Varro, consul in 216, must have found it extremely difficult, though perhaps not impossible, after carrying his lex de imperio in the comitium, to complete the consular and pretorian elections in the Campus Martius—all between sunrise and sunset on the same day; Livy xxii. 35. 4.

[1151] P. 192.

[1152] Dio Cass. xli. 43. 3. Livy, v. 52. 15, proves that the comitia curiata could meet only within the pomerium.

[1153] Dio Cass. xli. 43. 2.

[1154] Cf. Livy v. 52. 15.

[1155] Dio Cass. xxxix. 19. 3. The date of the trial was Feb. 7, 56; Cic. Q. Fr. ii. 3. 2.

[1156] Lex Cornelia de XX Quaest. in CIL. i. 202; Cic. Verr. i. 10. 30; Schol. Gronov. 395. Mark Antony when quaestor performed the functions of his office through the year without the sanctioning law; Cic. Phil. ii. 20. 50.

[1157] It is always spoken of in the singular, the implication being that one act served for all; cf. especially Caesar, B. C. i. 6; Livy ix. 38. 15; Dio Cass. xxxix. 19. 3.

[1158] Cic. Frag. A. vii. 48: “Itaque auspicato ... tr. pl. comitiis curiatis creati sunt”; Dion. Hal. vi. 89. 1; ix. 41. 2; cf. Livy ii. 56. 2; p. 262 below.

[1159] V. 46. 10.

[1160] Röm. Verf. 381 and n. 2.

[1161] Based on his reading of Fest. 351. 34: “(Triginta lictoribus l)ex curiata fertur; quod Hanni(bal in propinquitate) Romae cum esset, nec ex praesidi(is discedere liceret), Q. Fabius Maximus Verru(cosus egit per tr. pl. et Ma)rcellus cos. facere in(stituit.”...).

[1162] The attendance on the comitia tributa was sometimes as low as five to the tribe; Cic. Sest. 51. 109.

[1163] Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 7. 16 f.; in connection with the preceding note and p. 127.

[1164] Mommsen’s restoration is, “(Transit imperium nec denuo l)ex curiata fertur, quod Hanni(bal in vicinitate) Romae cum esset nec ex praesidi(is tuto decedi posset), Q. Fabius Maximus Verru(cossus M. Claudius Ma)rcellus cos. facere in(stituerunt)”; Röm. Forsch, ii. 412; Röm. Staatsr. i. 613, n. 3. Bergk, Rhein. Mus. N. F. xix (1864). 606, with less success proposes translatione imperii; cf. also Herzog, Röm. Staatsverf. i. 679. The passage is in fact past healing, though Mommsen’s reconstruction is an improvement on Rubino’s.

[1165] The second inference is from the present tense of the verb “fertur.”

[1166] Livy xxiv. 7-9.

[1167] Ibid. 9. 3.

[1168] Cf. Herzog, Röm. Staatsverf. i. 679. It is not to be assumed, however, that the senatus consultum had to be repeated at every such case of transition. Lange, Röm. Alt. ii. 175, 704 f., who gives the measure a wider constitutional scope, assumes that it was a plebiscite. Mommsen, Röm. Forsch. ii. 413, supposes that the two consuls on entering office in 214 simply omitted the curiate sanction on the ground that they already held the imperium, which was unlimited in duration, and that the jurists accepted this procedure as constitutional. The specific motive for this action, Mommsen asserts, was the fact that they were absent from Rome at the opening of their official year. But the truth is that they were both present (Livy xxiv. 10 f.), and had accordingly no occasion for establishing such precedent on their own responsibility. All they did in the matter, then, was to take advantage of a measure already enacted.

[1169] Cf. Livy xxi. 63; xxii. 1.

[1170] The existence of the measure of 215 proves that the curiate assembly and curiate law were at the time something more than a mere formality.

[1171] Cic. Att. iv. 17. 2; cf. p. 113, 194, n. 2. The Ciceronian passage, our only authority on this point, seems to imply a custom.

[1172] Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 12. 30.

[1173] On the servility of the lictors, see Cic. Verr. ii. 29. 72; Pis. 22. 53.

[1174] That the comitia curiata were no longer attended by the people in the time of Cicero is attested by Leg. Agr. ii. 11. 27: “Curiatis ... comitiis, quae vos non initis”; cf. n. 6.

[1175] Leg. Agr. ii. 11. 27. On the Aelian and Fufian statutes, see p. 116, 358 f.

[1176] Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 12. 31: “Illis (comitiis) ad speciam atque ad usurpationem vetustatis per ... lictores auspiciorum causa adumbratis.”

[1177] Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 12. 30: “Consulibus legem curiatam ferentibus a tribunis plebis saepe est intercessum”; cf. Dio Cass. xxxix. 19. 3.

[1178] Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 11. 29; p. 227 above.

[1179] Cic. Fam. i. 9. 25; p. 193 above.

[1180] Herzog, Röm. Staatsverf. ii. 905.

[1181] This chapter historically follows ch. iv.

[1182] Livy i. 60. 4. This is the first act which Livy records, and it is his opinion that the last king never consulted the people; i. 49. 3. His view harmonizes with that of Dionysius, iv. 40. 3, that Servius intended to resign his office and establish a republic, had he lived.

[1183] Cic. Rep. ii. 31. 53: “(Valerius Poplicola) legem ad populum tulit eam, quae centuriatis comitiis prima lata est.” Dionysius, iv. 20. 3, supposes that Servius actually used this assembly for elections, legislation, and declarations of war, that Tarquin the Proud set aside the Servian arrangement (iv. 43. 1), which was restored at the beginning of the republic. The first of these ideas is an inference from republican usage, not based on knowledge of any definite act of the assembly in the regal period. In this matter, Soltau, Altröm. Volksversamml. 264, has given him too much credit.

[1184] An objection to the view represented by Soltau, ibid. 270-5, that the coöperation of the army in the overthrow of Tarquin the Proud caused its immediate transformation into the comitia centuriata, is that we have no ground for accepting as historical the details of the overthrow to which he calls attention. In p. 285-96 he attempts to reconstruct the earliest constitution of the republic on the theory that the army elected the consuls (283), that for a time those who were not actually on military duty were excluded from a vote in the centuriate assembly. The sources give no information regarding such an assembly, and we have no right to assume it, at least as a regular, recognized institution, for any period however early. Lange, Röm. Alt. i. 465, supposes that with the founding of the republic the assembly began to diverge from the army, the two institutions having previously been identical; cf. Guiraud, in Rev. hist. xvii (1881). 1.

[1185] Livy ix. 13. 1.

[1186] Livy vii. 16. 4.

[1187] Livy v. 28. 7; vii. 36. 9.

[1188] Livy viii. 31.

[1189] Ibid. 32. 1.

[1190] Livy viii. 32 f.

[1191] Livy x. 19. 11.

[1192] Livy vii. 36. 9.

[1193] Ibid. ch. 37, especially § 9.

[1194] Cic. Fam. xi. 13. 3; Livy vii. 37. 9. viii. 32. 1; ix. 13. 1; x. 19. 11; xxviii. 26. 12; xl. 36. 4; xlii. 53. 1; Dion. Hal. iii. 13. 1.

[1195] Livy vii. 35. 1 f.

[1196] Livy v. 46. 5 ff.

[1197] Livy vii. 16. 7; p. 297.

[1198] Livy xxvi. 2. 2 (211 B.C.). On the military contio, see also p. 140.

[1199] Laelius Felix, Lib. ad. Muc. in Gell. xv. 27. 5: “Centuriata autem comitia intra pomerium fieri nefas esse, quia exercitum extra urbem imperari oporteat, intra urbem imperari ius non sit.”

[1200] Dion. Hal. vii. 59. 3: Συνῄει δὲ τὸ πλῆθος εἰς τὸ πρὸ τῆς πόλεως Ἄρειον πεδίον ὑπὸ λοχαγοῖς καὶ σημείοις τεταγμένον ὥσπερ ἐν πολέμῳ; p. 211. During the session Janiculum was occupied by a garrison, above which, in view of the Campus Martius, waved a flag; Dio Cass. xxxvii. 27; cf. Gell. xv. 27. 5.

[1201] P. 104, 140 f., 244.

[1202] Comm. Consular. in Varro, L. L. vi. 88; Livy xxxix. 15. 11; Laelius Felix, in Gell. xv. 27. 5; Fest. ep. 103; Macrob. Sat. i. 16. 15; Serv. in Aen. viii. 1. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 216, 294, n. 2, is of the opinion that the centuriate assembly was termed exercitus because it met for military exercise on the Campus Martius. But we have no evidence that the assembly ever took such exercise; in fact the drill of the proletarian mob would be hardly less ridiculous than that of the nonagenarians, both of whom had a right to vote in the assembly.

[1203] IV. 84. 5.

[1204] Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 216 and n. 3.

[1205] Fabius Pictor, Ann. i, in Gell. x. 15. 3 f.: “Dialem flaminem ... religio est classem procinctam extra pomerium, id est, exercitum armatum, videre; idcirco rarenter flamen Dialis creatus consul est, cum bella consulibus mandabantur.” There was no objection to this flamen’s seeing the comitia centuriata, but the armed centuries it was not lawful for him to see. Cf. Varro, L. L. vi. 93: “Alia de causa hic magistrates (quaestor) non potest exercitum urbanum convocare; censor, consul, dictator, interrex potest, quod censor exercitum centuriato constituit quinquennalem, cum lustrare et in urbem ad vexillum ducere debet.” But the term exercitus urbanus sometimes denotes the body of men enlisted for military service from those who were ordinarily exempt; Livy xxii. 11. 9.

[1206] Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 265, supposes that in the original form of census-taking the citizens were so arranged in companies under their leaders as to constitute an army ready to be led against the enemy. But the only citation he offers (Dion. Hal. ii. 14, perhaps for iv. 22. 1; see n. below) has no bearing on the matter.

[1207] IV. 22, i: Κελεύσας τοὺς πολίτας ἅπαντας συνελθεῖν εἰς τὸ μέγιστον τῶν πρὸ τῆς πόλεως πεδίων ἔχοντας τὰ ὅπλα καὶ τάξας τοὺς θ’ἱππεῖς κατὰ τέλη καὶ τοὺς πεζοὺς ἐν φάλαγγι καὶ τοὺς ἐσταλμένους τὸν φιλικὸν ὁπλισμὸν ἐν τοῖς ἰδίοις ἑκάστους λόχοις καθαρμὸν αὐτῶν ἐποιήσατο.

[1208] L. L. vi. 86: “Censor ... praeconi sic imperato ut viros vocet.... Omnes quirites pedites armatos, privatosque curatores omnium tribuum, si quis pro se sive pro alio rationem dari volet, vocato in licium huc ad me” (Mommsen’s reading, Röm. Staatsr. ii. 361, n. 6). Spengel reads, “Omnes quirites, (equites) pedites, magistratos privatosque, curatores,” etc., in which armatos does not appear.

[1209] Such an inspection by the censors, if it ever existed, must have fallen early into disuse (cf. Mommsen, ibid. iii. 397); but we could more reasonably suppose that the inspection of the arms and of the physical condition of the men always belonged to the officers who attended to the levy; Polyb. vi. 20.

[1210] Cf. Livy xliii. 14. 8: “Censores edixerunt ... qui in patris aut avi potestate essent, eorum nomina ad se ederentur.” The father gave the census of his son; Fest. ep. 66: “Duicensus (census of two) dicebatur cum altero, id est cum filio census;” Dion. Hal. ix. 36. 3. The son was classed according to the census of the father; Livy xxiv. 11. 7.

[1211] Cic. Leg. iii. 3. 7; Dion. Hal. iv. 15. 6; v. 75. 3; Gell. iv. 20. 3 ff.

[1212] Notwithstanding Genz, Centuriatverf. 11; Lange, Röm. Alt. i. 477.

[1213] Polyb. vi. 20 ff. The Romans were of the opinion that the same principle held for the earliest times; Varro, L. L. v. 89; Dion. Hal. iv. 14; cf. Soltau, Altröm. Volksversamml. 337.

[1214] Polyb. vi. 19. 2.

[1215] The five classes contained accordingly 80, 20, 20, 20, and 28 centuries respectively; cf. p. 66 f., 77; see also table on p. 210. A great difference exists between Livy and Dionysius, on the one hand, and Cicero, on the other, as to the number of centuries in the highest class. Cicero (Rep. ii. 22. 39: “Nunc rationem videtis esse talem, ut equitum centuriae cum sex suffragiis et prima classis addita centuria, quae ad summum usum urbis fabris tignariis est data, LXXXVIIII centurias habebat”) states that the eighteen centuries of knights, the centuries of the first class, and one century of mechanics amounted to eighty-nine, which would give but seventy to the first class. The most satisfactory explanation of this difficulty seems to be that Cicero, while professing to describe the earlier centuriate system, had in mind a formative stage of the new organization, in which the first class comprised seventy centuries; p. 67, 215, n. 2. On the number in the fifth class, see p. 66, 77, 208.

[1216] P. 68.

[1217] The two are mentioned by Livy i. 43. 3 and Dion. Hal. iv. 17. 3; vii. 59. 4. Pliny, N. H. xxxiv. 1. 1, speaks of a guild of coppersmiths, and Plut. Num. 17, refers to the same guild and to that of the carpenters, ascribing both to Numa as founder. Cicero, Rep. ii. 22. 39; Orat. 46. 156, mentions only the century of carpenters. Placing this century with the first class, he either overlooks that of the smiths or wishes to reckon it with the second class (cf. Huschke, Verf. des Serv. 153). As he reckons the total number of centuries at one hundred and ninety-three, he has allowed for both.

[1218] Plut. Num. 17; also n. above.

[1219] I. 43. 3.

[1220] Rep. ii. 22. 39; cf. n. 2 above.

[1221] IV. 17. 3.

[1222] Cf. Smith, Röm. Timokr. 91 f. with citations.

[1223] Cic. Rep. ii. 22. 40; Livy i. 43. 7; Dion. Hal. iv. 17. 3 f.; vii. 59. 5; cf. Varro, L. L. v. 91; Cato, in Gell. xx. 2.

[1224] Plut. Num. 17, speaks of only one guild of musicians, the pipers. But the cornicines formed a guild in imperial times; CIL. vi. 524. The two centuries were united in the collegium aeneatorum; Fest. ep. 20; CIL. vi. 10220 f.; Domazewski, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl. iii. 1954.

[1225] P. 68, 80.

[1226] Röm. Trib. 137, accepted by Genz, Centurienverf. 3, 8; Soltau, Altröm. Volksversamml. 254, 317, 520, n. 1. Huschke, Verf. d. Serv. 172, assumes ten and includes them in the fifth class. Lange, Röm. Alt. i. 471, supposes the accensi to have included the entire fifth class, which in his opinion was not instituted till the beginning of the republic.

[1227] I. 43. 7.

[1228] Rep. ii. 22. 40: “Quin etiam accensis velatis, liticinibus, cornicinibus, proletariis.”

[1229] CIL. vi. 9219: “Praef(ectus) c(enturiae) a(ccensorum) v(elatorum)”; cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. p. xi, n. 1; Ulpian, Vat. Frag. 138, mentions the privileges of this century. A decuria of the accensi velati is referred to by CIL. vi. 1973; cf. Kubitschek, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl. i. 136.

[1230] Cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 282; Kubitschek, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl. i. 135 ff.; Domazewski, ibid. iii. 1953 f.

[1231] P. 68.

[1232] XII Tables, in Gell. xvi. 10. 5: “Adsiduo vindex adsiduus esto. Proletario iam civi, cui, quis volet, vindex esto.”

[1233] Livy i. 43. 8; Dion. Hal. iv. 18. 2; Ennius, in Gell. xvi. 10. 1.

[1234] IV. 18. 2.

[1235] That there was a proletarian century, besides the accensi velati, in the comitia centuriata is proved by Livy i. 43. 8; Dion. Hal. iv. 18. 2; Cic. Rep. ii. 22. 40. Mommsen’s attempt (Röm. Staatsr. iii. 237 f., 285 f.) to rule this century out of existence has failed, notwithstanding the approval of some recent writers, as Domazewski, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl. iii. 1953. Cf. Kübler, ibid. iii. 1521 ff.

[1236] IV. 17. 2; vii. 59. 3.

[1237] Cf. Livy i. 43. 10.

[1238] Cf. p. 66, 77, n. 2.

[1239] P. 77 and n. 2.

[1240] 177. 21: “‘Niquis scivit’ centuria est, quae dicitur a Ser. Tullio rege constituta, in qua liceret ei suffragium ferre, qui non tulisset in sua, nequis civis suffragii iure privaretur.... Sed in ea centuria, neque censetur quisquam, neque centurio praeficitur, neque centurialis potest esse, quia nemo certus est eius centuriae. Est autem ni quis scivit nisi quis scivit.”

[1241] As does Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 285 f.

[1242] This view accords best with the words of Livy i. 43. 7: “In his accensi, cornicines tubicinesque, in tres centurias distributi” (they were reckoned among the thirty).

[1243] Accepted by Huschke, Verf. d. Serv. 152, but rejected by Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 283, n. 1.

[1244] P. 7, 62, 74 ff. 93, 96.

[1245] Cic. Rep. ii. 22. 39: “Equitum centuriae cum sex suffragiis”; Fest. 334. 29. Cic. Phil. ii. 33. 82, is uncertain.

[1246] Cic. Rep. ii. 22. 39 (n. above); Livy i. 36. 7; 43. 9.

[1247] P. 62, 93.

[1248] P. 93.