Read Ebook: The Roman assemblies from their origin to the end of the Republic by Botsford George Willis

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 2654 lines and 124528 words, and 54 pages

dem); iii. 1376 f.: C. Calpurnius Piso ; iv. 82-8: P. Clodius Pulcher ; 1252-5: C. Cornelius ; iv. 1287 f.: L. Cornelius Cinna--son of the famous democratic consul ; 1380 f.: Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus ; 1522-66: L. Cornelius Sulla Felix ; 2401-4: Deiotarus .

THE COMPOSITION AND PRESERVATION OF STATUTES, COMITIAL PROCEDURE, AND COMITIAL DAYS

Laws were drawn up in technically exact language. If the proposer of a rogation lacked the necessary knowledge, he sought the advice of learned friends. The bill, as first presented to the senate and published in the city on wooden tablets, was merely tentative; for discussion in the senate or the expression of public opinion might suggest changes or even induce the author to withdraw the proposal.

At the head of the law after its adoption was inserted the index and praescriptio, of which the consular lex Quinctia de aquaeductibus, accepted by the tribes in the year 9 B.C., offers a good example:

It contains the name of the rogator, his office, the body of citizens, whether populus or plebs, to which the proposal is offered, the place of the assembly, the date, the century or the tribe or curia which voted first, and the name of the citizen who has been granted the honor of casting the first vote for his praerogativa or principium. If the senate has given its sanction, that fact is indicated by the insertion of the phrase "de s s." In case the proposal is by a tribune of the plebs, it is strictly a plebi scitum; but that its equivalence to a lex may be made clear, it is described as a lex plebeive scitum.

The body of the law is divided into chapters separated by spaces, sometimes numbered, and occasionally bearing individual titles. Last comes the sanction, which provides for the enforcement. Some laws, however,--termed leges imperfectae--lack this part. Usually the sanction prescribes the form of procedure according to which offenders are to be tried.

The tribal assembly convened under the presidency of a tribune or aedile of the plebs, in which case the gathering was technically the plebs; or as the populus under a patrician magistrate--dictator, consul, praetor, curule aedile, pontifex maximus, or any extraordinary magistrate who possessed the ius agendi cum populo. It met indifferently within or without the pomerium, usually on the Capitoline hill in the precinct of the temple of Jupiter, in the Forum and comitium, the Campus Martius, and within the latter in the Flaminian meadow or Flaminian Circus. Meetings called by tribunes had to convene within the first milestone, which bounded the authority of these officials, whereas we hear of a tribal assembly called by a consul in the military camp at Sutrium . The contio, described in an earlier chapter, was transformed into comitia by order of the presiding magistrate directing the people to take their places in their respective tribes. Before this command was given a tribe was drawn by lot to receive the Latins who were at Rome. A second tribe was then drawn as a principium to cast the first vote. The bringing of the urn and the sortition were the last acts of the contio. To facilitate the division ropes were stretched across the Forum or other assembly-place, forming as many compartments as there were tribes. In time a permanent enclosure, termed Saepta, was built for the comitia. If the magistrate found that an entire tribe was absent, he assigned to it for the occasion a few citizens from some other, in order that in theory all thirty-five tribes--the universus populus Romanus--might be present. After the tribes were assembled in their comitia as here described, the principium was called to vote. This point terminated the right of intercession and of obnuntiating an evil omen discovered in watching the sky. When the suffrage of the principium was given and announced, all the remaining tribes voted simultaneously. In earlier time a rogator stood at the exit of each saeptum, and received the oral votes of the citizens as they passed out one by one. After the introduction of the ballot, the state provided little tablets inscribed with abbreviations for "ut rogas" and "antiquo" for affirmative and negative votes respectively, and for elections blank tablets on which the names of the candidates could be written. They were deposited in boxes placed at the exits above mentioned, under the charge of rogatores, who, having lost their original function, were now often, and more aptly, called custodes. They counted the ballots, and reported the results to the president. The latter had a right to announce to the public the returns from the tribes in whatever order he pleased, but he usually preferred to determine the succession by lot. In the election of any college of magistrates each citizen voted for as many candidates as there were places to be filled, and the announcements for each continued till a majority was reached in his favor. Precedence in honor within the college depended upon priority of election. The declaration of the vote by the praeco at the command of the president closed the comitial act. If for any reason the presiding magistrate discontinued the announcement before a majority was reached, the vote was without effect. The session of any assembly had to begin and end between sunrise and sunset.

The comitia curiata, presided over by the king, the interrex, and possibly by the tribunus celerum, and in the republican period by the dictator, consul, interrex, praetor, pontifex maximus, or rex sacrorum, met always within the pomerium, usually in the comitium, or for religious purposes in front of the Curia Calabra on the Capitoline hill. It was called together by a curiate lictor at the sound of the lituus or tuba. The procedure, which in general was like that of the tribal assembly, and which has been touched upon in the chapters on the comitia calata and curiata, does not require further consideration here.

The comitia centuriata could be summoned for voting by no magistrates in their own name and under their own auspices excepting those who were vested with the imperium--the dictator, consul, interrex for holding elections, the praetor for judicial business, and all extraordinary magistrates with consular power. The duoviri perduellioni iudicandae, the quaestors, and the tribunes of the plebs could summon this assembly for judicial business under the auspices only of a magistrate cum imperio, as the consul or more especially the praetor. It always met outside the pomerium, usually in the Campus Martius, at the call of an accensus, who sounded the trumpet at daybreak along the city wall. During the session the citizens in the assembly could see a flag waving above the Janiculum to signify that this post was occupied by a garrison as a protection for the city while they were engaged outside in a public duty. As in the case of the tribal assembly, the contio was transformed into comitia by an order of the president commanding the citizens to separate into their respective voting groups. The place of meeting, termed ovile , was divided by ropes or wooden fences into as many compartments as there were centuries in the largest voting division--probably eighty-seven. An elevated passage formed the exit of each compartment. The members of a century, while passing out one by one, gave their votes to the rogator, in the same way as the tribesmen in the comitia tributa. After the ballot was introduced, it was used in all assemblies alike. The order of voting before and after the reform has been sufficiently explained in an earlier chapter. In general the principles governing the announcement of votes, interruptions, and adjournments were the same for all three assemblies. The length of the assemblies must have varied according to the form of organization, the number of voters present, and various other circumstances. In the time of Caesar the process in the comitia centuriata, on an occasion in which there was no delay, lasted five hours. We should therefore assume at least an hour for the voting of the tribes.

A SUMMARY OF COMITIAL HISTORY

Originating in the simple gathering of the primitive folk, the general assembly of Roman citizens came, under sacerdotal influence, to be grouped in curiae with a view to adding order and solemnity to the meetings. 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. Excepting for brief, transitional periods the assembly, whatever its form, admitted all citizens who possessed the right of suffrage. Its power was at first slight vague, and chiefly receptive. Though in the regal period the people occasionally approved or rejected judicial sentences, administrative plans, and even proposals for changes in existing customs submitted to them by the king of his own free will, the only function which at that time they definitely acquired was the election of their chief magistrate.

From the founding of the republic to the decemviral legislation the magistrates and senate exercised almost absolute control over the administration. At the very beginning the comitia centuriata--a newly established timocratic institution--assumed the right to enact laws, which for a long time were substantially limited to matters directly affecting the constitution; and the alleged Valerian centuriate statute made of this body a supreme court to which any citizen condemned on a capital charge was granted the privilege of appeal. In practice, however, the law benefited those only of high rank who were accused of political crimes. Meantime a new, more democratic assembly under the presidency of tribunes of the plebs, meeting by tribes after 471, usurped an extensive though ill-defined power of fining and capitally condemning offenders against the sanctity of plebeian officials. But this function, resting upon an act of the plebs only and enforced by threats of violence, was almost nullified by patrician opposition. It was doubtless in this period that voting by heads arose in the comitia centuriata, whence it was adopted by the other assemblies.

The Twelve Tables confirmed the comitia centuriata in the rights it had previously assumed; and if not expressly, at least by implication they granted legislative and judicial power to the tribunician assembly of tribes. A Valerian-Horatian statute of 449 provided that resolutions approved by the senate and carried by the latter assembly should have the force of law, just as from the beginning the senatorial sanction was essential to the validity of curiate and centuriate resolutions and elections. At the same time in conformity with a law of the Twelve Tables an arrangement was made by which the tribunes should bring their finable actions before the tribes and those of a capital nature before the centuries. Soon afterward the patrician magistrates began to use the tribes for the election of inferior officials and occasionally for the ratification of laws.

During the century following the decemviral legislation the almost absolute administrative power of the senate and magistrates remained but slightly affected by the comitia. The appointment of a dictator or the establishment of a special judicial commission placed the citizens at the mercy of the government. Although the comitia centuriata acquired the right to ratify or reject declarations of offensive war and though the tribunes succeeded in enacting a few important plebiscites, like the Canuleian and the Licinian-Sextian, the people made little progress toward the free exercise of legislative and judicial functions. With the enactment of a lex de ambitu in 358 the tribes began to legislate concerning magistrates, with reference not only to candidacy and qualifications but soon also to powers and functions and to the creation of new offices. They passed laws on finance and religion and on the qualification and appointment of senators; they assumed the function of ratifying or rejecting proposals for peace and of admitting aliens to citizenship. The tribes and the centuries began regularly to exercise appellate jurisdiction. About the same time the people acquired the function of appointing special judicial commissions, and subjected the dictator to the law of appeal. In an effort to throw off the control exercised by the nobility the Publilian statute of 339 excluded patricians from the tribunician assembly of tribes , and in 287 that of Hortensius rendered the approval of the senate and of the patrician portion of it unessential to the validity of the plebiscite. 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 the cleverness of the nobles in gaining control of the plebeian tribunate and in using religion as a check on comitial freedom. the rapid expansion of the Roman power, which drew the public mind away from internal politics, and which rendered the assembly not only an inadequate representative of the citizens but also incompetent for the functions devolving upon it. Many years passed, however, before this incompetency became serious. Though henceforth the comitia were in theory sovereign, they remained limited by a want of initiative both in the act of assembling and in the offering of resolutions, by the lack of free deliberation, by the tribunician veto, and by the oblative auspices. After the enactment of the Hortensian statute the comitia tributa enjoyed almost exclusive possession of the legislative function. The larger share fell to the tribunician assembly, which excelled in aggressiveness, and which admitted as much freedom of debate as was consistent with the spirit of the constitution--hence it was preferably termed concilium. Notwithstanding these relative advantages of the tribal assembly the adverse conditions above mentioned led to an era of comitial stagnation , at the close of which the tribunate of C. Flaminius brought a new outburst of activity . The assemblies now recovered all they had lost in the preceding age and made fresh gains. Noteworthy are the sumptuary, monetary, private, and family statutes, and the recognition of the right of the people to grant dispensations from existing laws. In the opinion of Polybius the constitution was in this time at its best. The nobles admitted the theory of popular sovereignty, as they could well afford to do in view of their thorough control of all governmental institutions. In the era of the completed plutocracy they regularly resorted to the comitia in matters of little political importance or in those in which they felt certain of the results. Under these conditions fewer laws were enacted for the benefit of the masses. The policy of the nobles was to repress individual freedom by subjecting both magistrates and assemblies to the plutocratic machine. Even the comitial judicia were subordinated to this end; and toward the close of the period the people in establishing permanent courts began through legislation to surrender their judicial power to the senatorial class, while the senate, on the other hand, resumed the function of dispensing from the laws and of appointing special courts. In these ways the nobility was making great inroads on popular liberty.

In the beginning of the revolutionary period the tribal assembly, liberated for a time from servitude to the plutocracy, became under the presidency of reforming tribunes the ruling power at Rome. Its activity not only embraced the whole field of administration but was directed by the Gracchi to the creation of a new political constitution and to the regeneration of society. But its variable composition precluded consistency of action. Though at times, as when controlled by the rural element of the citizen body, it could be induced to adopt liberal, statesmanlike measures such as the agrarian and colonial laws of the Gracchi, the usual dominance of the ignorant and unprincipled poor of the metropolis inclined it to a short-sighted, selfish course of conduct--rendering it a powerful weapon in the hands either of the demagogue or of the plutocratic senate, equally effective for resisting genuine reforms and for destroying the institutions of the republic. As with the progress of the revolution the conservative checks began to weaken and disappear, the comitia became more and more subject to violence and coercion. The comitial prosecutions of this period partook of the same revolutionary character. From the time of Sulla the assemblies were overshadowed by the military power. Under his dictation they surrendered to the senatorial courts nearly all that remained of their judicial function, and they seriously crippled their legislative power in favor of a reaction to the pre-Hortensian constitution. After a brief interval of bondage to the senate they recovered their legislative freedom, only to subserve for the future the alliance now formed between the tribunes of the plebs and the great proconsuls. From the accession of Julius Caeesar to the dictatorship their power rapidly declined. They yielded to him a large share of their legislative and even of their elective function. After a brief period of pretended liberty following the assassination of the dictator, they lapsed with the fall of the republic into utter insignificance.

The comitia had filled a large place in the history of the state. They were the chief factor of constitutional progress and of beneficent legislation. Their development and decline involved the prosperity and the ruin of the republic. For the world they have a higher value. The tribal assembly, supporting the plebeian tribunate, was the storm centre of long, heroic struggles for human rights. The fact that it championed this cause, that it met with some success in the conflict, that a Gracchus deemed it worthy to undertake the social regeneration of the world, has given the institution a universal and a permanent interest.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

From this list are excluded the titles of all works which, treating of other than Roman institutions, are referred to in this volume for comparative purposes, and of all sources which are accessible in well-known, standard editions.

Abbott, F. F. A History and Description of Roman Political Institutions. Boston, 1901.

Ackermann, H. Die r?umlichen Schranken der tribunizischen Gewalt. Program. Rostock, 1891.

Aelius Donatus. Commentum Terenti, ed. P. Wessner. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1902, 1905.

Ahren, E. A. J. Die drei Volkstribunen Ti. Gracchus, M. Drusus, und P. Sulpicius. Leipzig, 1836.

Amp?re, J. J. Histoire Romaine ? Rome. 4 vols. Paris, 1866-1872.

Arnobius, Adversus Nationes libri vii, rec. A. Reifferscheid. Vienna, 1875.

Arnold, W. T. The Roman System of Provincial Administration. New ed. Oxford, 1906.

Aust, E. Die Religion der R?mer. M?nster, 1899.

Babelon, E. Description historique et chronologique des monnaies de la r?publique Romaine. 2 vols. Paris, 1885, 1886.

Babelon, E. Les origines de la monnaie. Paris, 1897.

? Trait? des monnaies Grecques et Romaines, i. Paris, 1901.

Bardt, C. Die Priester der vier grossen Collegien aus r?misch-republikanischer Zeit. Program. Berlin, 1871.

Beloch, J. Campanien: Topographie, Geschichte, und Leben der Umgebung Neapels im Altertum. Berlin, 1879.

? Der italische Bund unter Roms Hegemonie. Leipzig, 1880.

? Die Bew?lkerung der griechisch-r?mischen Welt. Leipzig, 1886.

Belot, E. Histoire des chevaliers Romaines, etc. 2 vols. Paris, 1866, 1873.

Bernh?ft, F. Staat und Recht der r?mischen K?nigszeit im Verh?ltniss zu verwandten Rechten. Stuttgart, 1882.

Berns, C. De comitiorum tributorum et conciliorum plebis discrimine. Inaugural dissertation. Wetzlar, 1875.

Bertolini, C. I celeres ed il tribunus celerum; contributo alla storia della constituzione dell' antica Roma. Rome, 1888.

Blasel, J. Die Motiven der Gesetzgebung des C. Sempronius Gracchus. Trieste, 1878.

Bloch, G. Recherches sur quelques gentes patriciennes, M?langes d'arch?ologie et d'histoire de l'?cole Fran?aise de Rome, 241-76. 1882.

Bloch, L. Die st?ndischen und sozialen K?mpfe in der r?mischen Republik. Leipzig, 1900.

Blume, F., Lachmann, K., and Rudorff, A. F. Die Schriften der r?mischen Feldmesser, ii. Berlin, 1852. Vol. i is the Gromatici Veteres, ed. K. Lachmann.

B?ckh, A. Metrologische Untersuchungen. Berlin, 1838.

Bormann, E. Die ?lteste Gliederung Roms, Eranos Vindobonensis, 345-58. Vienna, 1893.

? Some Problems connected with the Roman Gens. ibid, xxii . 663-92.

? The Lex Curiata. ibid, xxiii . 498-517.

Bouch?-Leclerq, A. Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquit?, iv. 134-285. Paris, 1882.

? Augures, Daremberg et Saglio, Dict. i. 550-60. Auspicia. ibid. i. 580-5.

Borgeaud, C. Histoire du pl?biscite: le pl?biscite dans antiquit?. Geneva and Paris, 1887.

Breda. Die Centurienverfassung des Servius Tullius. Bromberg, 1848.

Br?cker, L. O. Untersuchungen ?ber die Glaubw?rdigkeit der altr?mischen Verfassungsgeschichte. Hamburg, 1858.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet