210 



power of guarding the law itself, and nullifying such legislation as was 

 clearly opposed to fundamental principles, or, as we would say, uncon- 

 stitutional. 



Originally, the people consisted of the patricians only, who acted in an 

 assembly called the Comitia Cariata, and they alone bore the burdens of 

 the government, and constituted the military force. But under what is 

 Ciilled the Servian constitution, said to have been established by Servius 

 TuUius, the population, whether patrician or plebeian, was divided into 

 classes and centuries according to property qualification, — the classifica- 

 tion being similar to that of the Athenian people by Solon. The inten- 

 tion of this arrangement was to make the plebeians, or those who had 

 property, equally subject, with the patricians, to taxation and military 

 service ; but the assembly of the citizens under this classification, called 

 the Comitia Centuriata, gradually acquired legislative power, and took 

 the place entirely ot the Comitia Curiata. In this assembly, the classes 

 were so arranged as to give a decisive advantage in voting to the higher 

 classes. 



Afterwards, under the republic, a new division of the people was made 

 into tribes, and as the primary purpose of this was for the assessment and 

 collection of taxes, the assembly of the citizens by tribes was called the 

 Comitia Trihuta ; and in this the votes of all the citizens were of equal 

 force. This assembly also gradually acquired legislative power, and it 

 finally became a coordinate legislature with the Comitia Centuriata. 

 Each of these assemblies was vested with full legislative power, and each 

 could repeal the acts of the other, or, in fact, either could, in theory, have 

 abolished the other. In the one assenlbl3^ manhood suffrage prevailed ; 

 in the other, a property qualification that gave the decisive power to the 

 wealthy ; and these two coordinate legislative assemblies continued to 

 exist alongside of each other during the whole period of the republic, (r) 

 Upon the abolition of the monarchy, instead of one king for life, the 

 kingly power was vested in two officers, holding for a term of one year 

 only, called consuls, in whom was vested all the powers of tlie king, 

 not jointly, but in each separately ; so that either consul could act with- 

 out tlie concurrence of the other, and either could annul the acts of the 

 other, and, indeed, either could remove both himself and his colleague 

 from power by nominating a dictator, in whom the whole kingly power 

 became at once vested. These officers, that is, the consuls, or the dic- 

 tator, had the power of punishing the citizen ; and this power extended 

 even to the infliction of ihe death penalty, until, by the Valerian law, an 

 appeal was provided, in the case of ca))ital ofi"onses, to the people. In 

 addition, it was enacted that every citizen should have the right to kill 

 any official, including tiie consuls, should he aspire to a tyranny, and that 

 upon trial, proof of the fact should be sufficient to acquit him. 



Originally, the political power, as we have said, was confined to the 

 patricians, and afterwards to the patricians and the wealthy plebeians, and 

 in consequence the plebeians were much oppressed. This resulted in the 



