Comitia curiata

“ Another function of the curiae was political. The grown male members, meeting in the comitium, constituted the earliest assembly organized in voting divisions—the comitia curiata—in which each curia cast a single vote. [63] Religious and political functions the curia continued to exercise far down into historical time; and for that reason they have never been doubted by the moderns. For the primitive period Dionysius [64] ascribes to them military functions as well. ”

“ Comitia curiata consisted of the members of the thirty curiae, that is, the patricians, who formed exclusively the populus in the early times. They were convened, in the kingly period, by the king himself, or by his tribunus celerum, and in the king’s absence by the praefectus urbi. After the death of a king the comitia were held by the interrex. In the republican period, the president was always one of the high patrician magistrates, viz. a consul, praetor, or dictator. They were called together by lictors or heralds. The votes were given by curiae, each curia having one collective vote ”

“ The confirmation by the curiae (lex de imperio) of elections in the centuriate assembly was conceived as a second vote of the community. [188] (7) The resolutions of the comitia curiata are always thought of as resolutions of the populus, which Latin literature nowhere restricts to the patrician body. (8) In all ancient literature there is nowhere the slightest hint of a change in the social composition of the curiae or of the comitia curiata in the whole course of their history. ”

“ Under the Republic, the curić, still confined to the four urban tribes, and including only the populace of Rome, suited neither the senate, which led the patricians, nor the tribunes, who, though plebeians, were at the head of the well-to-do citizens. They therefore fell into disrepute, and their degradation was such, that thirty lictors used to assemble and do what the comitia curiata should have done. ”

“ The popular assembly of united Rome in its earliest days was that in which the freemen met and voted by their curiae The assembly. (comitia curiata [27] ) . The place of assembly was in the Comitium at the north-east end of the Forum, [28] at the summons and under the presidency of the king or, failing him, of the interrex. By the rex or the interrex the question was put, and the voting took place curiatim, the curiae being called up in turn. The vote of each curia was decided by the majority of individual votes, and a majority of the votes of the curiae determined the final result. ”

“ A Latin colony in the time of Domitian still elects its magistrates at a comitia curiata, [2070] and the transference of this principle to Spain shows its prevalence at the time in Italy. The paucity of inscriptions of the early Principate which speak of elections by the only alternative body, the local Senate, is remarkable, and there are clear indications of the survival of the principle of popular election until the time of Antoninus Pius. [2071] It doubtless retained its hold on Italy as late as it did on the western provinces ”

“ From this early conception the idea of human legislation gradually emerged. Not daring on his own responsibility to change a traditional usage which the people held sacred, the magistrate found it expedient to obtain their consent to any serious departure, [1053] with a view not to legalizing the proposal, but to pledging the people to its practical adoption. When and how the primitive acclamation gave way to the orderly vote of the comitia curiata cannot be ascertained from the sources. ”

“ 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 people require to be organised in one way for one function, in another way for another, [1235] but under the changing forms there is a unity of personnel which forbids us regarding the different assemblies as different sovereigns. [1236] The only disturbance to this unity is found in the fact that the Patricians were always excluded from the concilium of the Plebs. [1237]
The comitia curiata, the oldest sovereign in Rome, was a mere shadow of its former self. ”

“ It seems to have been after this event and partly in consequence of it [1170] that the comitia curiata, which had long been declining, became at last a mere formality, attended by none but three augurs as witnesses to the proceedings [1171] and thirty lictors, [1172] who meekly [1173] cast the votes in obedience to the command of the presiding magistrates. [1174] It is a noteworthy fact that whereas the statesman Cicero has much to say of the curiate law, Livy and Dionysius make little reference to it. ”

“ The law of the Twelve Tables (451 B.C.) ordained, with respect to jurisdiction, “de capite civis nisi per maximum comitiatum ... ne ferunto” (Cic. de Leg. iii. 4, 11) . The mention of the “greatest comitia” clearly implies the existence of a lesser one with judicial powers; and as this is not likely to have been the comitia curiata of the period, it can hardly be any other assembly than the comitia of the tribes.
(b) The quaestors were first elected by the people in 447 B.C. (Tac. Ann. xi 22) , and in later times their appointment was made by a comitia of the tribes (Cic. ad Fam. vii 30) . ”

“ The priestly officers, such as the Curiones, Flamines Curiales, were likewise either elected by the curiae, or at least inaugurated by them. The right of finally deciding upon the life of Roman citizens (judicia de capite civis Romani) is said to have been given to the populus by king Tullus Hostilius. It must further be remarked, that when the king had been elected, the populus held a second meeting, in which he was formally inducted into his new office. This formality was called lex curiata de imperio, whereby the king received his imperium, together with the right of holding the comitia. ”

“ The opinion of Mommsen about the method of election is more plausible than the others. It was in accordance with the Roman spirit of order that the tribunes, in summoning their assemblies, should not ask the plebeians to come en masse as individuals, and vote by heads, but should organize their supporters in bands. The curia was certainly a territorial district, and the tribunes may have originally used it as the basis of their organization. If tribunes were elected by plebeians massed curiatim, such a meeting would easily be mistaken in later times for the comitia curiata. ”

“ 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 ”

“ His reasoning is not cogent. The curia may have lost its earlier military function, as did the phratry (Il. ii. 362 f.) .
[66] That the antiquarians had some evidence as to the military character of the curiae is suggested by Fest. ep. 54: “Centuriata comitia item curiata dicebantur, quia populus Romanus per cetenas turmas divisus erat.”
[67] Il. ii. 362 f.
[68] Tac. Germ. 7. 3.
[69] Schrader, Reallex. 349 f.
[70] All adult male citizens had a right to attend this assembly, all who were physically qualified and of military age were liable to service when called to it ”

“ I hope—for I think it is permissible—for a cardinal who resides in his diocese. Not that the cardinals of the curia are wanting in breadth or in experience, but as a rule those prelates who live in the provinces are in immediate contact with the people. They have a better chance of seeing things from the inside than those who occupy an official post in Rome, important and indispensable though these may be. But of necessity the non-resident cardinals are less well known in Rome than those of the curia, their candidature must therefore be slower and the election longer. ”

“ The comitia centuriata, once known as the “greatest of the comitia” (comitiatus maximus) , [1247] not only from its importance as expressing the sovereign will, but from the possibility of enforcing the attendance of the assembled army, always retained something of its military character and its association with the imperium. Its summons and presidency belong by right only to the magistrates with imperium. The consuls are its normal presidents for elections and for laws; the praetor approaches it for purposes of jurisdiction, and the interrex for the election of a consul. ”

“ Every opportunity of extending the jurisdiction of the Curia was welcome. Exemptions were so managed that fresh grants were constantly necessary. Bishops were privileged against cathedral chapters, chapters against their bishops; bishops, convents, and individuals, against the extortions of legates.
The two pillars on which the papal system now rested were the College of Cardinals and the Curia. The cardinals, in 1059, had become electors of the popes. Up to that time elections were made by the whole body of the Roman clergy, and the concurrence of the magistrates and citizens was necessary. ”

“ Do you think the Senate is "right," when it has left our provinces without military rule? For Curio could never have held out, if there had been negotiations with him—a proposal rejected by the House, which left Caesar without a successor. Is it the tax-collectors, who have never been loyal and are now very friendly with Caesar? Or is it the financiers or the farmers, whose chief desire is peace? Do you suppose they will fear a king, when they never declined one so long as they were left in peace? Well then, do I approve of the candidature of a man who keeps his army beyond the legal term? ”

“ The electioneering alliances, which were everywhere in vogue, but particularly in Germany, between the Catholics and popular party and the Social Democrats, throw a lurid light upon the character of a movement that certainly went far beyond the intentions of the pope, but which it was now difficult to undo or to hold in check. For it is the essence of the matter that there were further considerations going far beyond the Roman question and forcing the Curia to adhere to the sovereignty of the people. ”

“ Information received from a [112] private citizen the president could credit or not as he saw fit, or he could declare it irrelevant; [665] but the law compelled him to accept the nuntiatio of an augur or the obnuntiatio of another magistrate.
Prohibitive auspicia oblativa included evil omens of all kinds. When in 310 the dictator called the curiae for passing the lex de imperio, it chanced that the Curia Faucia was the first to vote (principium) . Now this curia was ill omened because on two earlier occasions it had happened to be principium at a time of great national disaster. ”

“ 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) . ”

“ 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. ”

“ Besides these functions the Comitia Tributa decided on war or peace, elected the tribunes, aediles, and lesser magistrates, and also usurped judicial power, arraigning magistrates for their conduct in office, &c. The functions of the Comitia Centuriata were, as we have, seen, also legislative. They elected to the higher magistracies and exercised jurisdiction in capital cases, a function which grew out of the Roman citizen's right to appeal. Each century had one vote ”

“ The instructions of the Spanish delegates ordered them to labour especially for the reformation of the Curia; for the chief objection of the infidels to Christianity arose from the public and execrable wickedness of Rome, for which the Pope was accountable. It was apparently to forestall action that, in March, 1512, Julius appointed a commission of eight Cardinals to reform the Curia and its officials and, on March 30, he issued a bull reducing the heavy burden of fees and other exactions. ”

“ The interests of Rome demand that there shall be no change by which the power of the pontiff would be diminished, or by which the curia would lose any of the profits which it wins from the states, but the novelties by which the profits of the curia would be increased, or by which the authority of the states would be diminished and that of the curia increased, are not abhorred, but are favored. ”