Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/756

Rh 732 K O M E [ins-Tom question at length, but two statements may be safely made respecting it. The Sabine invasion, if it took place at all, must have taken place far back in the prehistoric age ; it must have been on a small scale ; and the Sabine invaders must have amalgamated easily and completely with the Latin settlers. The structure of the early Roman state, while it bears evident marks of a fusion of communities, shows no traces of a mixture of race. Nor is it easy to point to any provably Sabine element in the language, religion, or civilization of primitive Rome. 1 The theory of a Sabine conquest can hardly be maintained in the face of the predominantly Latin character of both people and institutions. On the other hand, the prob- ability of a Sabine raid and a Sabine settlement, possibly on the Quirinal Hill, in very early times may be admitted. The incursions of the highland Apennine tribes into the lowlands fill a large place in early Italian history. The Latins were said to have originally descended from the mountain glens near Reate. 2 The invasions of Campania and of Magna Graecia by Sabellian tribes are matter of history, and the Sabines themselves are represented as a restless highland people, ever seeking new homes in richer lands. 3 In very early days they appear on the borders of Latium, in close proximity to Rome, and Sabine forays are familiar and frequent occurrences in the old legends. lie early Such is all we know of the manner in which the separate ate - settlements on the seven hills grew into a single city and community. How long Rome took in the making, or when or by whom the work was completed, we cannot say. Nor is it possible to give more than a very meagre outline of the constitution and of the history of the united state in the early days of its existence. he The " populus Romanus " was, we are told, divided into sople. three tribes, Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres, 4 and into thirty " curiae." The three tribes probably represent a primitive clan division, older than the Roman state itself. They survived in later times only as divisions of the ancient " equitum centuriae," and even in the accounts of the earliest constitution they have ceased to serve as a political division of the people. 5 Of far greater importance is the division into "curiae." In Cicero's time there were still curies, curial festivals, and curiate assemblies, and modern authors are unquestionably right in regarding the curia as the keystone of the primitive political system. It was a primitive association held together by participa- tion in common "sacra," and possessing common festivals, common priests, and a common chapel, hall, and hearth. The members of a curia were very probably neighbours and kinsmen, but the curia seems to represent a stage in political development midway between that in which clan- ship is the sole bond of union and that in which such claims as those of territorial contiguity and ownership of land have obtained recognition. As separate associations the curiae 1 See Mominsen, i. 43. The Sabine words in Latin, if not common to both dialects, were probably introduced later, or are Sabinized Latin (Mommsen, Unterital. Dialekten, 347). Schwegler's attempt to distinguish Sabine features in the Roman character is ingenious but unsatisfactory. 2 Cato ap. Dionys., ii. 48, 49. 8 Cato ap. Dionys., ii. 48, 49. For the institution of the "ver sacrum" see Schwegler, Rom. Gesch.,. 240 ; Nissen, Templum, iv. Tities with Tatius is as old as Ennius (Varro, L. L., v. 55). Mommsen (5. 41) explains Ramnes as = Romani, but this etymology is rejected by Schwegler and by Corssen. As regards the Luceres there is little to add to Livy's statement (i. 13), "nominis et originis causa incerta est." C/., on the whole question, Schwegler, i. 505, and Volquardsen, Rhein. Mus., xxxiii. 538. 5 They are traditionally connected only with the senate of 300 patres, with the primitive'legion of 3000, with the vestal virgins, and with the augurs (Varro, L. L., v. 81, 89, 91 ; Livy, x. 6 ; Festus, 344 ; Mommsen, i. 41, 74, 75 ; Cenz, Patricisch. Rom, 90). are probably older than the Roman state, but, 6 however this may be, it is certain that of this state when formed they constituted the only effective political subdivisions. The members of the thirty curiae are the populus Romanus, and the earliest known condition of Roman citizenship is the "communio sacrorum," partnership in the curial "sacra." Below the curia there was no further political division, for there is no reason to believe that the curia was ever formally subdivided into a fixed number of gentes and families. 7 Nor can we assent to the view which would represent the curise as containing only the " patrician gentes." The primitive Roman people of the thirty curioe included all the freemen of the community, simple as well as gentle. 8 At their head was the "rex," the ruler of the united The kin people. The Roman "king" is not simply either the hereditary and patriarchal chief of a clan, the priestly head of a community bound together by common sacra, or the elected magistrate of a state, but a mixture of all three. 9 In later times, when no " patrician magistrates " were forthcoming to hold the elections for their successors, a procedure was adopted which was believed to represent the manner in which the early kings had been appointed. 10 In this procedure the ancient privileges of the old " gentes " and their elders, the importance of maintaining unbroken the continuity of the "sacra," on the trans- mission and observance of which the welfare of the com- munity depended, and thirdly the rights of the freemen, are all recognized. On the death of a king, the auspicia, and with them the supreme authority, revert to the council of elders, the "patres," as representing the "gentes." By the "patres" an "interrex" is appointed, who in turn nominates a second ; by him, or even by a third or fourth interrex, a new king is selected in consultation with the "patres." The king-designate is then proposed to the freemen assembled by their curise for their acceptance, and finally their formal acceptance is ratified by the " patres," as a security that the "sacra" of which they are the guardians have been respected. 11 Thus the king is in the first instance selected by the representatives of the old gentes, and they ratify his appointment. In form he is nominated directly by a predecessor from whose hands he receives the auspicia. But it is necessary also that the choice of the patres and the nomination of the interrex should be confirmed by a solemn vote of the community. It is useless to attempt a precise definition of the prerogatives of the king when once installed in office. Tradition ascribes to him a position and powers closely 6 It is possible that the curiae were originally connected with separate localities; cf. such names as Foriensis, Veliensis (Fest., 174; Gilbert, i. 213). 7 Niebuhr's supposition of ten gentes in each curia has nothing in its favour but the confused statement of Dionysius as to the purely military 8/ca8es (Dionys., ii. 7 ; cf. Miiller, Philologus, xxxiv. 96). 8 The view taken here on the vexed question of the purely patrician character of the curiae is that of Mommsen (Rim. Forschunyen, vol. i.). 9 Rubino, Genz, and Lange insist on the hereditary patriarchal character of the kingship, Ihne on its priestly side, Schwegler on its elective. Mommsen comes nearest to the view taken in the text, but fails to bring out the nature of the compromise on which the kingship rests. 10 Cic. De Legg., iii. 3 ; Livy, iv. 7. 11 "Patres auctoresfacti," Livy, i. 22 ; " patres fuere auctores," Id., i. 32. In 336 B.C. (Livy, viii. 12) the Publilian law directed that this sanction should be given beforehand, "ante initum suirragium," and thus reduced it to a meaningless form (Livy, i. 11). It is wrongly identified by Schwegler with the "lex curiata de imperio," which in Cicero's day followed and did not precede election. According to Cicero (De Rep., ii. 13, 21), the proceedings included, in addition to the " creation " by the coinitia curiata and the sanction of the patres, the introduction by the king himself of a lex curiata conferring the imperium and auspicia; but this theory, though generally accepted, is probably an inference from the practice of a later time, when the "creatio" had been transferred to the "comitia centuriata."
 * The tradition connecting the Ramnes with Romulus and the