73 



COMITIA. 



COMITIA. 



74 



although the mode in which it is exerted continues to be involved in 

 great mystery. The following results of micrometric measures of the 

 progress of the tail of the great comet of 1858, executed at the obser- 

 vatory of Harvard College, Cambridge, U.S., will furnish an apt illus- 

 tration of our remark : 



The shortening of the tail between the 12th and 17th of September 

 is due entirely to the effect of moonlight. To the same cause may be 

 partly attributed the change from the 10th to the 15th of October, 

 but it is no doubt mainly due to the rapid diminution of the bright- 

 ness of the comet. 



Numerous theories of the origin of the tails of comets have been 

 proposed from time to time, but as they are all open to serious ob- 

 jections we do not think that any useful purpose would be served by 

 giving an account of them on the present occasion. It is plain 

 from the observations of the more conspicuous comets, that the tail is 

 fed by the matter raised from the nucleus by the action of the 

 gun. There would appear to be in this case two forces acting upon 

 the cometic particles, independently of the force of gravitation. First, 

 we have indications of a force violently ejecting the particles to a short 

 distance from the nucleus ; and secondly, we have equally clear evi- 

 dence of a repulsive force of great intensity directed upon the comet 

 from the sun, and driving the particles so ejected to an immense 

 distance in space. The most probable view of the nature of these 

 powerful forces is that which attributes them to electrical agency, but 

 no satisfactory theory of the subject has yet been advanced by any 

 inquirer. 



COMITIA. Comitium originally signified a place of meeting, as the 

 name imports. Varro, ' De'Ling. Lat.'l. v.,s. 155. Plutarch (' Romulus,' 

 xix.) says that the plain where the Romans met the Sabines, in order to 

 agree on the terms of a treaty, was called " comitium," and Niebuhr, 

 ' History of Rome' (i. 291, ed. 1851), in narrating the history of the 

 union of the two towns of Roma and Quirium, and accounting for the 

 steps by which the union was effected, mentions the old legend of a 

 place of meeting for the Roman and Sabine kings and senates, called 

 comitium from the fact of its lying between the Palatine and Capitoline 

 hills. Whether it was intended to preserve a record of the old place of 

 meeting, or was simply used as a topographical description must be 

 left to conjecture. The word was retained and applied to a particular 

 part of the Forum, where for many a day the remembrance of the old 

 rivalry was preserved by the two statues of Romulus and Tatius that 

 were erected in it The plural " comitia " denotes general assemblies 

 of the Roman people, convened by the constitutional authority of some 

 magistrate, in order to enact or repeal anything by their suffrages. 

 One set of comitia was named " calata," from the old word calare, 

 to call or convene (A. Gellius, 15, 27), where the people were sum- 

 moned to be witnesses to certain solemn acts, or certain things then 

 announced to them. 



There were three kinds of Roman comitia : 



1. C'uriata, so called because the people met and voted in curias. 

 Romulus, it is said, divided the whole Roman people into three tribes, 

 and each tribe into ten curia;, which were subdivided into decads, 

 being, an Niebuhr contends, the same as houses, so that each curia 

 containing 10 houses, the 3 tribes numbered 300 in all. Now, as no 

 houses but those which composed the three ancient tribes were 

 essential parts of the state, in consequence of which the patricians 

 could boast that they alone (gcntem habere) had a house (Livy x. 8), 

 division, so essential to the patrician order, was in close con- 

 nection with it, and therefore, when the political importance of the 

 plebeians rose, the curias sank and, except in the continued observance 

 of their sacra, for some years after their political degradation, fell 

 into oblivion. The word curia) is derived from curare, to take care 

 of or superintend civil and religious affairs (Varro, ' De L. L.' v. 165, 

 and vi. 46) ; though another and somewhat plausible etymology is 

 that which connects it with the Sabine word Quiris or Curis. (See 

 Smith's 'Latin Dictionary,' tub rer6o.) Each curia formed a sepa- 

 rate community for the celebration of sacred rites, for which purpose a 

 particular priest, called curio, was attached to each curia, and a decurio, 

 or captain and burgess to each decad or house. But all the curia) 

 were under the superintendence of a curio maximus. A separate place 



which was also called curia, was assigned to each curia for performing 

 its sacred rites. The members of a curia were called curiales. 



There is some obscurity and doubt about the ancient constitution of 

 the curia) and comitia curiata. However, it seems certain, that the 

 curia) had the superintendence of sacred matters, that all the public 

 power was united and centralised in the comitia curiata, and that the 

 patrician order must have possessed a great preponderance in them. 

 (See Niebuhr's ' Home,' vol. i., ' on the Curies.') In these comitia 

 laws were made or repealed, peace or war declared ; (as to treaties of 

 peace, however, see ' Diet, of Gr. & Rom. Antiq.' Comitia, p. 332 b),the 

 affairs of the curia) and gentes or houses decided, capital crimes judged, 

 and the king as well as the other chief magistrates of the state elected. 

 The place of meeting (comitium) was in the forum, and in its northern 

 corner were the rostra. There was no fixed time for the meeting of 

 the curia), but they met as business required, and were held in the 

 presence and under the protection of the priests, their president being 

 the king, or an interrex in the ante-republican times, and some high 

 patrician magistrate, a consul, praitor, or dictator, under the Republic, 

 while none but the populus or the patrician members of the curia) had 

 a right to take part in these assemblies. 



Serving Tullius having instituted the comitia centuriata, and the 

 plebeians becoming powerful through the comitia tributa, the comitia 

 curiata gradually lost almost all political power. However they still 

 passed enactments under the title of leges curiata), which, before the 

 institution of the comitia centuriata, denoted every law made by the 

 comitia curiata ; but afterwards that term was limited to express a few 

 political rights, still reserved to the latter comitia, particularly that of 

 granting military power (imperium) to those magistrates who were 

 elected in the comitia centuriata, which could only confer civil power 

 (poteslai). Finally, the political influence of the comitia curiata was 

 reduced to a mere formality, and represented, in Cicero's time, by thirty 

 lictors. Still, a shadow of the old institution was preserved in the con- 

 tinuance of the patrician comitia calata used principally for the adro- 

 gationes. Though their political power was lost, the curia) retained 

 their religious functions till the last times of the republic, arid always 

 elected the curio maximus and the flamens. Their number was never 

 augmented, as waa the case with the tribes. Before proceeding to 

 the second class of comitia, a few words on the subject of a 

 peculiar authority possessed by the comitia curiata will not be in- 

 appropriate, for a more full account of which the reader is referred 

 to Niebuhr's ' Hist.,' vol. i. ch. 21. The election of the kings was, it 

 is known, in the hands of the curies, but in addition thereto, to 

 this body belonged the conferring the imperium (Cic. ' De Rep.' ii. 13) : 

 hence they not only could elect, but they could annul that election : 

 the first it is said was done by the populus, the second by the senate 

 or patres, and to effectuate that second decision, a law was passed by the 

 patres, called by Cicero lex curiata de imperio, and by Livy, auctoritas 

 patrum (Livy i. 17). The conclusion that Niebuhr draws from this 

 identity of the auctoritas patrum, and the lex curiata de imperio is, 

 that the comitia of the curies and the assembly of the patricians were 

 identical. 



2. Centuriata. Servius Tullius, according to tradition, in order to 

 diminish the power of the patricians, and. to elevate the plebeians 

 without giving them any power, made a new division of the Roman 

 people into six classes, which were subdivided into centuries or votes. 

 There has been much dispute about this division and the number of 

 the centuries ; and the controversy scarcely admits of decision, as the 

 ancient writers (Livius, i. 43, Dionys. Halicarn., ' Antiq. Rom.,' i. 19-22, 

 and Cicero, ' De Republica,' ii. 22) are of different opinions. But the 

 nature of the institution is not so doubtful. According to the more 

 probable opinion (that of Dionys. Hal.), the 6 classes contained 193 

 centuries. The first class consisted of 18 centuries of knights and 80 

 centuries of those (ditisimi) whose fortune amounted to at least 

 100,000 ases; the second class (ditiores) contained 22 centuries, and 

 consisted of those who possessed at least 75,000 ases; the third 

 (divites) 20 centuries, and consisted of those who had a property of 

 50,000 ases at least; the fourth class (mediocres) 22 centuries, of 

 those who possessed 25,000 ases at least; the fifth class (modici) 30 

 centuries, of those who possessed 12,500 ases ; the sixth class contained 

 but one century of capite censi, that is, persons counted by head and 

 not by estates : they were also called proletarii, or a>rarii. 



According to this division the Roman people met in the comitia 

 centuriata, in order to vote in centuries on public matters ; that is, a 

 decree of the assembly was made by counting the votes of the centu- 

 ries. As the first class alone contained more centuries than all the 

 other classes together, it may be said that, as Romulus had created an 

 aristocracy of birth by his division of curia), so Servius Tullius created 

 an aristocracy of fortune by his new division. In order to prevent that 

 disadvantage, when the plebeians had obtained more power, the 

 century which was to give its suffrages first was appointed by lot. 

 The century upon which the lot fell was called prarogativa. The other 

 centuries voted according to the order of their classes, and were called 

 jure vocataj. The decision by lot being regarded as a divine omen, the 

 centuria; jure vocata) commonly followed the vote of the centuria pra;- 

 rogativa ; and thus the power of the first class was balanced in some 

 measure. A contest however sometimes arose whether a matter was to 

 be decided in the comitia centuriata or tributa. 



Every Roman citizen in the best sense of the words (civil optima jure) 



