Comitia Centuriata

“ Under Augustus the comitia still sanctioned new laws and elected magistrates, but their whole proceedings were a mere farce, for they could not venture to elect any other persons than those recommended by the emperor. Tiberius deprived the people even of this shadow of their former power, and conferred the power of election upon the senate. When the elections were made by the senate the result was announced to the people assembled as comitia centuriata or tributa. Legislation was taken away from the comitia entirely, and was completely in the hands of the senate and the emperor. ”

“ Without going here into further details, we may gather from what has been said above that the Comitia Tributa were the most favourable to popular government, and the Comitia Centuriata to aristocracy. The Comitia Curiata, in which the populace of Rome formed the majority, being fitted only to further tyranny and evil designs, naturally fell into disrepute, and even seditious persons abstained from using a method which too clearly revealed their projects. It is indisputable that the whole majesty of the Roman people lay solely in the Comitia Centuriata, which alone included all ”

“ This naturally pleased the plebeians, but was not approved by the citizens of high pedigree, who thus lost some of their prestige. The newly formed centuries together constituted the Comitia Centuriata (gathering of the centuries) , or National Assembly, which met for business on the Campus Martius, somewhat after the manner of a New England "Town Meeting." In these conclaves they elected certain magistrates, gave sanction to legislative acts, and decided upon war or peace. This Comitia formed the highest court of appeal known to Roman law. ”

“ Down to the time of Servius Tullius, the comitia curiata were the only popular assemblies of Rome, and remained of course in the undiminished possession of the rights above described; but the constitution of that king brought about a great change, by transferring the principal rights which had hitherto been enjoyed by the curiae to a new national assembly or the comitia centuriata. But while the patricians were obliged to share their rights with the plebeians, they reserved for themselves the very important right of sanctioning or rejecting any measure which had been passed by the centuries. ”

“ As the comitia curiata and comitia centuriata, under patrician presidents, had from the beginning been termed populus, nothing could be more natural than that from the time an assembly convened under plebeian presidency for plebeian objects, the latter should by way of distinction be termed plebs, even though the few patricians were included. Ordinarily the plebeians must have welcomed patricians to their assemblies, as the presence of magistrates and senators and their sons added dignity and weight to the proceedings. ”

“ But he did not dare to abolish the old Patrician assembly, and was even obliged to enact that no vote of the Comitia Centuriata should be valid till it had received the sanction of the Comitia Curiata.
Thus, in consequence of the legislation, we shall find that Rome subsequently possessed three sovereign assemblies: 1. The Comitia Centuriata, consisting of both Patricians and Plebeians, and voting according to Centuries; 2. The Comitia Curiata, consisting exclusively of Patricians, and voting according to Curiæ; 3. The Comitia Tributa, exclusively of Plebeians, and voting according to Tribes. ”

“ In any case it had the best of the voting, for even if it was decided by lot which century of all the centuries should vote first, still the first class voted second, and the moral effect of the wealthier and weightier citizens voting one way or other would naturally influence the votes of the other centuries. Moreover some say that the lot was confined to the centuries of the first class. Such then was the original and such the modified constitution of the Comitia Centuriata. [Sidenote: Sulla's legislation about the Comitia.] ”

“ The comitia survived the Republic. The last known act of comitial legislation belongs to the reign of Nerva (A.D. 96-98) . After the essential elements in the election of magistrates had passed to the senate in A.D. 14, the formal announcement of the successful candidates (renuntiatio) still continued to be made to the popular assemblies. Early in the 3rd century Dio Cassius still saw the comitia centuriata meeting with all its old solemnities (Dio Cassius lviii. 20) . ”

“ In like manner, although the plebeians attended the comitia curiata and had a majority of votes in this assembly, they could not thereby control the government, for they absolutely lacked initiative. [193] The comitia centuriata, a timocratic institution, elevated the rich and degraded the poor. Here as elsewhere the poor lost by the substitution of aristocracy for kingship ”

“ At the head of the Classes were the Equites or cavalry. These consisted of eighteen centuries, six being the old patrician Equites, as founded by Romulus and augmented by Tarquinius Priscus, and the other twelve being chosen from the chief plebeian families. [8]
The Centuries formed the new National Assembly. They mustered as an army in the Campus Martius, or the Field of Mars, on the banks of the Tiber, outside the city. They voted by Centuries, and were hence called the Comitia Centuriata. Each Century counted as one vote, but did not consist of the same number of men. ”

“ The comitia centuriata was by law compelled to meet outside the city and its gathering place was usually the Campus. Promulgation was required for the space of 3 nundinae (i.e. 24 days) before a matter was submitted to the people. The voting was preceded by a contio at which a limited debate was permitted by the magistrate. In the assemblies of the curiae and the tribes the voting of the groups took place simultaneously, in that of the centuries in a fixed order. ”

“ According to the principle laid down in the Twelve Tables (Cicero, de Legibus, iii. 4. 11) capital cases were reserved for this assembly. It was not frequently employed as a legislative body after the two assemblies of the tribes, which were easier to summon and organize, had been recognized as possessing sovereign rights. The internal structure of the comitia centuriata underwent a great change during the Republic—a change which has been conjecturally attributed to the censorship of Flaminius in 220 B.C. (Mommsen, Staatsrecht, iii. p. 270) . ”

“ During the republic the Campus Martius was employed specially for two purposes. (1.) As a place for holding the constitutional assemblies (comitia) especially the Comitia Centuriata, and also for ordinary public meetings (conciones) . (2.) For gymnastic and warlike sports. For seven centuries it remained almost entirely open. ... In the Comitia, the citizens, when their votes were taken, passed into enclosures termed septa, or ovilia, which were, for a long period, temporary wooden erections."
W. Ramsay, Manual of Roman Antiquity, chapter 1. ”

“ Hence the name of Comitia Centuriata. Each century was divided into the seniores and the juniores. Each century, further, was counted as one vote, so that a class had as many votes as it contained centuries. In like manner, the equites were divided into a number of centuries or votes. The two principal authorities on these subdivisions are Livy and Dionysius. The annexed table will show the census as well as the number of centuries or votes assigned to each class. ”

“ Three years later the dictator Publilius Philo passed through the centuriate assembly the statute (1) that plebi scita should be [300] binding on all the quirites; (2) that before the voting began the patres should give their auctoritas to proposals brought before the comitia centuriata; (3) that one censor at least should be plebeian (339) . [1821] All three articles were alike aimed against the political dominance of the patricians. The second freed centuriate legislation from their control ”

“ Each of the pair of magistrates could act up to the full powers of the imperium; but the dissent of his colleague rendered his decision or his action null and void. At the same time the principle of a merely annual tenure of office was insisted on. The two magistrates at the close of their year of office were bound to transmit their power to successors; and these successors whom they nominated were obliged to seek the suffrages of the people. The only body known to us as electing the consuls during the republican period was the comitia centuriata (see Comitia) . ”

“ The divisions of society widened, and the seeds of luxury and pride were to produce violence and decay.
Political changes. Rise of demagogues. Still some political changes were effected at this time. The Comitia Centuriata was remodeled. The equites no longer voted first. The five classes obtained an equal number of votes, and the freedmen were placed on an equal footing with free-born. Thus terminated the long conflict between patricians and plebeians. ”

“ By such empty concessions the nobility rendered the people more docile. Thus to the end of the republic the centuriate assembly retained the constitutional right to decide questions of aggressive war, although in practice the magistrates nearly regained the place which they and the senate had held during the century following the overthrow of kingship. [1384]
The nature of our sources does not allow a precise judgment regarding the importance of the comitia curiata in the early republic. ”

“ Attendance at the Contiones and the Comitia not only delighted the eye and ear, but filled the heart with pride, and sometimes the purse with money. For here the units, inconsiderable in themselves, had become a collective power; they could shout down the most dignified of the senators, exalt the favourite of the moment, reward a service or revenge a slight in the perfect security given by the secrecy of the ballot. Large numbers of the poorer class were attached to the great houses by ancestral ties ”

“ Meanwhile in administrative and in constitutional legislation the comitia tributa made great gains at the expense of the senate and magistrates and of the centuriate assembly.
The period extending from 358 to 287 was accordingly the first great age of comitial legislative and judicial activity. The strong popular tendency then manifested might have created a real democracy, had it not been for (1) the cleverness of the nobles in gaining control of the plebeian tribunate and in using religion as a check on comitial freedom. ”

“ Originally, each of the three Roman tribes was divided into ten gentes, each gens into ten curiæ, and each curia, besides constituting one of the units in the comitia curiata, furnished one member of the Roman Senate. The Senate continued after the organization by curiæ had become obsolete. Membership in the Senate was at all periods for life, but did not descend from father to son. Vacancies in the Senate were filled by appointment, these appointments being made first by the kings, later by the consuls, and finally by the censors. ”

“ The increasing wealth and luxury of the age naturally gave rise to sumptuary legislation; and the nobility could allow the comitia to revel in this field, devoid as it was of political significance. The first act, however, was to undo the Oppian law of 215 [2193] through the plebiscite of M. Valerius, 195, enacted probably without a senatus consultum. ”

“ In the comitia tributa, the people voted, divided into tribes, according to their regions or wards; they were held to create inferior magistrates, to elect certain priests, to make laws, and to hold trials.
The comitia continued to be assembled for upwards of seven hundred years, when that liberty was abridged by Julius Cæsar, and after him by Augustus, each of whom shared the right of creating magistrates with the people. Tiberius the second emperor, deprived the people altogether of the right of election. ”

“ Thus the Romans created the comitia curiata. Not only the curiae, but also the later centuries, classes, and tribes, originally existed independently of the assembly for various administrative purposes and were brought into connection with that institution as convenient systems of organization. At first ceremonial, the comitia curiata came to be used for voting on resolutions. Gradually reducing this earliest organized gathering to a formality, the Romans successively introduced the centuriate and the tribal comitia. ”

“ IV. Within the province of organized national gatherings, on the other hand, (a) comitia is the wider term, applying as it does to all assemblies of the kind, whatever their function; whereas (b) concilium as an organized national assembly is wholly restricted to legislative and judicial functions. [744]
[133]
(a) Comitia is used in its most general sense in Cicero, Div. i. 45. 103; ii. 18. 42 f.; 35. 74; Tusc. iv. 1. 1. [745]
V. (a) Applied to foreign institutions, comitia always designates electoral assemblies; (b) as at Rome, concilia are always legislative or judicial assemblies. ”

“ A popular tendency may be discovered as well in the [425] final settlement of the question of conflict between sessions of the senate and of the comitia by the lex Pupia, which seems to have been a statute of M. Pupius Piso Calpurnianus, praetor in 71. [2658] It forbade the magistrates to convoke the senate on those comitial days on which an assembly actually met, [2659] the prohibition applying to that part only of the day which preceded the dismissal of the comitia. ”

“ On you the senate, all good citizens, the allies, the people of Latium, shall cast their eyes; on you the preservation of the State shall entirely depend. In a word, if you escape, the impious machinations of your relatives, you will, in quality of dictator, establish order and tranquillity in the Commonwealth. ”