— 4517 — 



gave to the citizens the tabella with which tliey voted in the co- 

 raitia; but Wunderhas most distinctly proved, in the preface to his 

 Codex Erfurtensis (pp. cxxxi, CLvili), that it was the office of the 

 diribitores to divide the voles when taken out of the cistae so as to 

 determine which had the majority. He remarks that the etymology 

 of diribere would lead us to assign to it tlie meaning os « separation » 

 or « division » as it is compounded of dis and habere in the same 

 manner as dirimere is of dis and emere ; the h disappears as in 

 'prachere and debere, which come respectively from prac and ha- 

 bere, and de and habere. In several passages the word cannot have 

 any other signification than that given by Wunder (Cic. prò Piando, 

 20 ad Qu. Fratr. IH, 4 S. 1 ; Varrò, de Re Rust. Ili, 2, ss. i, III, 5, 

 ss. 18). When Cicero sais (in Pison. 15) « vos rogatores, vos diribito 

 res, vos custodes tabellarum », we may presume that he inontions 

 these offìcers in the order in which they discharged their duties 

 in the comitia. It was tlie office of the rogatores to collect the ta- 

 belleae which eacli century gave, as they used, befor the ballot was 

 introduced, to ask (rogare) each century for its votes, and report 

 them to magistrate who presided over the comitia. The diribitores, 

 as has been already remarked, divided the votcs when taken out 

 of the cistae, and handed them over to the custodes, who che- 

 cked them off by points marked on a tablet ». Igino Gentile, le Ele- 

 zioni e il Broglio nella Republica Romana, Hoepli, 1879, p. 215, 

 it., e Gaston Boissier, les élections a Rome vers la fin de la Rù- 

 publique «Revue des deux Mondes», 1." mars 1881, recensione del 

 libro d' Iginio Gentile. E finalmente nell' Ilandbuch di Becker u. 

 Marquardt der Rómischen Alterthumer, zweiter Theiì, 3.' Abthei- 

 lung, die Volksversamnilungen der Republik, p. 97 e seg. ; 1." Si 

 opina che si desse bensì la tavoletta, ma una tavoletta sola, e si cita: 

 Cic, Philipp. XI, e. 8: Tabella modo detur nobis, sicut populo data 

 est (sebbene qui può significare più il diritto del voto che la tavo- 

 letta]: Schol. Bob., p. 303, Or. Hanc L. Cassius tulit ut non voce 

 suffragìuni pronuntiarent, sedtabellae inscriberent: ed inoltre Plu- 

 tarco, Calo minor, 1. e. — 2." Si assegna al rogator e al diribitor il 

 posto relativamente assegnato in questa Memoria, cioè il rogator 

 prima, e il diribitor poi (se si attribuisce al rogator accertarsi della 

 identità personale del votante, e se quando vi fosse distribuzione del- 

 le tesserae si è al rogator, che ivi si attribuisce!) « Dieses Geschàft 

 (noverare le tavolette) ist die diribitio, und wird untcr Aufsicht der 

 Tomo /, Serie VI. 192 



