Comitia
The popular assemblies of the Romaus, summoned and presided over by a
magistratus. In the comitia the Roman people appeared as distributed into its
political sections, for the purpose of deciding, in the exercise of its sovereign rights, upon
the business brought before it by the presiding magistrate. The comitia must be distinguished
from the
contiones. The
contiones were also summoned
and presided over by a magistrate, but they did not assemble in their divisions, and they had
nothing to do but to receive the communications of the magistrate. In all its assemblies at
Rome the people remained standing. The original place of meeting was the Comitium, a part of
the Forum. There were three kinds of comitia, viz.:
1.
The Comitia Curiāta. This was the assembly of the
patricians in their thirty
curiae, who, until the change of the
constitution under Servius Tullius, constituted the whole
populus Romanus.
During the regal period they were summoned by the
rex or
interrex, who brought before them questions to be decided Aye or No. The
voting was taken first in each curia by heads, and then according to curiae, in an order
determined by lot. The business within the competence of this assembly was: (
a) to elect a king proposed by the
interrex; (b) to confer upon
the king the
imperium, by virtue of the
lex curiata de
imperio; (c) to decide on declarations of war, appeals,
arrogationes (see
Adoptio), and the
reception of foreign families into the body of the patricians. The Servian constitution
transferred the right of declaring aggressive war and the right of deciding appeals to the
Comitia Centuriata, which, from this time on ward, represented the people, now composed of
both patricians and plebeians. After the establishment of the Republic, the Comitia Curiata
retained the right (
a) of conferring, on the proposal of the Senate, the
imperium on the magistrates elected by the Comitia Centuriata, and on the dictator elected by
the consuls; (
b) of confirming, likewise on the proposal of the Senate,
the alterations in the constitution decided upon by the Comitia Centuriata, and Tributa.
The extinction of the political difference between patricians and plebeians destroyed the
political position of the Comitia Curiata, and the mere shadow of their rights survived. The
assembly itself became an unreality, so much so that, in the end, the presence of the thirty
lictores curiati and three augurs was sufficient to enable legal
resolutions to be passed. (See
Lictors.) But the
Comitia Curiata retained the powers affecting the reception of a non-patrician into the
patrician order, and the powers affecting the proceeding of
arrogatio,
especially in cases where the transition of a patrician into a plebeian family was concerned.
Evidence of the exercise of these functions on their part may be traced down to the imperial
period.
2.
The Comitia Calāta were also an assembly of the
patrician curiae. They were so called because publicly summoned (
calare). The pontifices presided, and the functions of the assembly were: (
a) to inaugurate the flamines, the rex sacrorum, and indeed the king himself
during the regal period. (
b) The
detestatio
sacrorum, previous to an act of
arrogatio. This was the formal
release of a person passing by adoption into another family from the
sacra of his former family. (See
Adoptio.)
(
c) The ratification of wills twice a year; but
this applies only to an early period. (
d) The announcement of the
calendar of festivals on the first day of every month.
3.
Comitia Centuriāta. The assembly of the whole people,
patrician as well as plebeian, arranged according to the
centuriae
established by Servius Tullius. The original founder of the Comitia Centuriata transferred to
them certain political rights which had previously been exercised by the Comitia Curiata. It
was not, however, until the foundation of the Republic, when the sovereign power in the State
was transferred to the body of citizens, that they attained their real political importance.
They then became the assembly in which the people, collectively, expressed its will. The
right of summoning the Comitia Centuriata originally belonged to the king. During the
republican period it belonged, in its full extent, to the consuls and the dictator alone. The
other magistrates possessed it only within certain limits. The
interrex, for instance, could, in case of there being no consuls, summon the Comitia
Centuriata to hold an election, but he could summon them for this purpose only. The censors
could call them together only for the holding of the
census and the
lustrum; the praetors, it may be conjectured, only in the case of capital
trials. In all other instances the consent of the consuls, or their authorization, was
indispensable.
The duties of the Comitia Centuriata during the republican period were as follows: (
a) To elect the higher magistrates: consuls, censors, and praetors. (
b) To give judgment in all the capital trials in which appeal to the people
was permitted from the sentence of the magistrate sitting in judgment. This popular
jurisdiction was gradually limited to political trials, common offences being dealt with by
the ordinary commissions. And in the later republican age the judicial assemblies of the
Comitia Centuriata became, in general, rarer, especially after the formation of special
standing commissions (
quaestiones perpetuae) for the trial of a number
of offences regarded as political. (
c) To decide on declaring a war of
aggression; this on the proposal of the consuls, with the approval of the Senate. (
d) To pass laws proposed by the higher magistrates, with the approval of
the Senate. This right lost much of its value after B.C. 287, when the legislative powers of
the Comitia Tributa were made equal to those of the Comitia Centuriata. After this time the
legislative activity of the latter assembly gradually diminished.
The Comitia Centuriata were originally a military assembly, and the citizens accordingly,
in ancient times, attended them in arms. On the night before the meeting, the magistrate
summoning the assembly took the auspices on the place of meeting, the Campus Martius. If the
auspices were favourable, signals were given, before daybreak, from the walls and the citadel
by the blowing of horns, summoning the citizens to a
contio. The
presiding magistrate offered a sacrifice and repeated a solemn prayer, and the assembly
proceeded to consider the business which required its decision. Private individuals were not
allowed to speak, except with the consent of the presiding magistrate. At his command the
armed people divided themselves into their
centuriae, and marched in
this order to the Campus Martius, preceded by banners and headed by the cavalry. Arrived at
the Campus, they proceeded to the voting, the president having again put the proposal
to the people in the form of a question,
Velitis iubeatis Quirites?
(“Do you wish?” “Do you command?”). While the voting
was going on, a red flag stood on the Ianiculum. The
equites, who in
ancient times used to begin the battles in war, opened the voting, and their 18 centuries
were therefore called
praerogativae. The result of their vote was
immediately published, and, being taken as an omen for the voters who were to follow, was
usually decisive. Then came the 175 centuries of the five
classes of
infantry in their order. Each century counted as casting one vote; this vote was decided by a
previous voting within the century, which was at first open, but in later times was taken by
ballot. If the 18 centuries of equites and the 80 centuries of the first class, with whom
went the 2 centuries of mechanics (
centuriae fabrum), were unanimous,
the question was decided, as there would be a majority of 100 centuries to 93. If not, the
voting went on until one side secured the votes of at least 97 centuries. The lower
classes only voted in the rare cases where the votes of the higher
classes were not united. The proceedings concluded with a formal
announcement of the result on the part of the presiding magistrate, and the dismissal of the
host. If no result was arrived at by sunset, or if unfavourable omens appeared during the
proceedings, or while the voting was going on, the assembly was adjourned until the next
convenient occasion.
This form of voting gave the wealthier citizens a decided advantage over the poorer, and
lent an aristocratic character to the Comitia Centuriata. In the third century B.C. a change
was introduced in the interest of the lower
classes. Each of the
thirty-five
tribus, or districts, into which the Roman territory was
divided, included two
centuriae of
iuniores and
seniores respectively. (For the five
classes, see
Exercitus.) Thus each of the five
classes included 70 centuries, making 350 centuries in all. To this number add the 18
centuries equitum, and the 5 centuries not included in the propertied
classes—namely, 2 of
fabri (mechanics), 2 of
tubicines (musicians), and 1 of
proletarii and
liberti (the very poor and the freedmen), and the whole number of centuries amounts
to 373. The centuries, it must be remembered, had by this time quite lost their military
character. Under this arrangement the 88 votes of the
equites and the
first
classis were confronted with the 285 votes of the rest. Besides
this, the right of voting first was taken from the equites and given to the
centuria praerogativa chosen by lot from the first
classis. The
voting, it is true, was still taken in the order of the
classes, but the
classes were seldom unanimous as in former times; for the interests of
the tribus, which were represented in each
classis by two centuries
respectively, were generally divergent, and the centuries voted in the sense of their tribe.
The consequence was that it was often necessary—indeed, perhaps that it became the
rule, at least at elections—to take the votes of all the
classes.
In early times the military arrangement was sufficient to secure the maintenance of order.
But after its disappearance the
classes were separated and the centuriae
kept apart by wooden barriers (
saepta), from which the centuries passed
over bridges into an open inner space called
ovile (sheepfold). On the
position of the Comitia Centuriata during the imperial age, see below.
4.
Comitia Tribūta. This was the collective assembly of
the people arranged according to the local distribution of tribes. (See
Tribus.) When the tribuneship of the
plebs was
established (B.C. 494) the tribunes were allowed the right of summoning assemblies of the
plebs in its tribes to consider questions affecting its interests. Out
of these councils of the
plebs (concilia plebis) were afterwards (B.C.
449) formed the Comitia Tributa, in which the patricians were represented as well as the
plebeians; but the plebeians had the preponderance, as they were the more numerous, and as
the voting qualification was exactly equal. By a law passed in B.C. 449, and finally ratified
in 286, the
plebi scita, or resolutions of the Comitia Tributa, were
declared binding upon the whole
populus. The consequence was that this
assembly, side by side with the Comitia Centuriata, became the representative of the popular
supremacy, and, indeed, its proper and constitutional organ. This was specially the case in
regard to legislation, the more so as it was far simpler to summon the people by tribes than
by centuries.
The right of summoning the Comitia Tributa lay chiefly, though not exclusively, with the
tribuni. Their consent was regarded as an indispensable condition, if
another magistrate wished to summon or preside over the Comitia Tributa. Until the latter
years of the Republic, the assembly usually met upon the Capitol, and afterwards on the
Campus Martius. The functions of the Comitia Tributa, gradually acquired, were as follows:
(
a) The election of all the lower magistrates, ordinary (as the
tribuni plebis, tribuni militum, aediles plebis, aediles curules) and
extraordinary, under the presidency partly of the tribunes, partly of the consuls or
praetors. (
b) The nomination of the
pontifex
maximus, and of the coöpted members of the religious
collegia of the
pontifices, augures, and
decemviri
sacrorum. This nomination was carried out by a committee of seventeen tribes chosen by
lot. (
c) To give judicial decisions in all suits instituted by the
tribunes and aediles of the
plebs, for offences against the
plebs or its representatives. In later times these suits were mostly
instituted on the ground of bad or illegal administration. The tribunes and aediles had, in
these cases, the power of inflicting pecuniary fines ranging up to a large amount. (
d) To pass resolutions on proposals made by the tribunes of the
plebs and the higher magistrates on foreign and domestic affairs
—on the conclusion of peace, for instance, or the making of treaties. Their power
was almost unlimited, and the more important because, strictly speaking, it was only the
higher magistrates who required the authorization of the Senate. Nor had the Senate more than
the right of quashing a measure passed without due formalities.
The Comitia Tributa were summoned, at least seventeen days before the meeting, by the
simple proclamation of a herald (
praeco). As in the case of the Comitia
Centuriata, business could neither be begun nor continued in the face of adverse anspices.
Like the Comitia Centuriata, too, the tribal assembly met at daybreak and could not sit
beyond sunset. If summoned by the tribunes, the Comitia Tributa could only meet in the city,
or within the radius of a mile from it. The usual place of assembly was the Forum or the
Comitium (q.v.). If summoned by other authorities, the
assembly met outside the city, most commonly in the Campus Martius. The proceedings
opened with a prayer, unaccompanied by sacrifice. The business in hand was then discussed in
a
contio (see above, p. 391
a); and the proposal
having been read out, the meeting was requested to arrange itself according to its
thirty-five tribes in the
saepta, or wooden fences. Lots were drawn to
decide which tribe should vote first. The tribe on which this duty fell was called
principium. The result of this first vote was proclaimed, and the other
tribes then proceeded to vote simultaneously, not successively. The votes given by each tribe
were then announced in an order determined by lot. Finally, the general result of the voting
was made known.
The proposer of a measure was bound to put his proposal into due form and publish it
beforehand. When a measure came to the vote, it was accepted or rejected as a whole. It
became law when the presiding magistrate announced that it had been accepted. The character
of the comitia had begun to decline even in the later period of the Republic. Even the
citizens of Rome took but little part in them, and this is still more true of the population
of Italy, who had received the Roman citizenship in B.C. 89. The Comitia Tributa, in
particular, sank gradually into a mere gathering of the city mob, strengthened on all sides
by the influx of corrupt elements. The results of the voting came more and more to represent,
not the public interest, but the effects of direct or indirect corruption. Under the Empire
the Comitia Centuriata and Tributa continued to exist—in a shadowy form, it is
true—down to the third century A.D. Iulius Caesar had deprived them of the right of
deciding on war and peace. Under Augustus they lost the power of jurisdiction, and,
practically, the power of legislation. The imperial measures were, indeed, laid before the
Comitia Tributa for ratification, but this was all; and under the successors of Augustus even
this proceeding became rarer. Since the time of Vespasian, the emperors, at their accession,
received their legislative and other powers from the Comitia Tributa; but this, like the
rest, was a mere formality. The power of election was that which, in appearance at least,
survived longest. Augustus, like Iulius Caesar, allowed the Comitia Centuriata to confirm the
nomination of two candidates for the consulship. He also left to the Comitia Centuriata and
Tributa the power of free election to half the other magistracies— the other half
being filled by nominees of his own. Tiberius transferred the last remnant of free elective
power to the Senate, whose proposals, originating under imperial influence, were laid before
the Comitia for ratification. The formalities, the auspices, prayer, sacrifice, and
proclamation, were now the important things, and the measures proposed were carried, not by
regular voting, but by acclamation. See Mommsen,
Römische
Forschungen, vol. i.; Becker and Marquardt,
Röm.
Alterthümer, vol. ii., pt. i., pp. 353-394, and pt. iii., pp. 1-196; Lange,
Röm. Alterthümer, i. 341-355, 391- 491; ii. 418-682; and
the articles
Tabellariae Leges;
Lex;
Pons.