Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/50

86 it was empowered only to pass the curiate law (lex curiata, p. 11), to take action in certain individual cases affecting the clans, as, for example, the adoption of an independent (sui juris) citizen, and to witness certain religious ceremonies. Its activity came to be more and more formal, and belonged more and more to the sphere of private, and not constitutional, law.

Manner of Voting in the Centuriate Assembly. — If the curiate assembly had retained its powers, the plebeians would no doubt have secured the right to vote in the curies and a great advance would have been made toward democracy, since all the voters were placed on an equal footing in the curies. The patricians avoided this by making the centuries the great assembly of the state.

In the centuriate assembly each century cast one vote, which was decided by a majority of the members or voters. A majority of the one hundred and ninety-three centuries was decisive. The centuries of horsemen voted first, then the centuries of infantry in the first class, next those of the second class, and so on, until a majority of ninety-seven centuries was obtained. According to Livy the two centuries of workmen voted with the first class, the three of musicians and of unarmed substitutes (accensi velati, also called proletarii, capite censi) with the fifth.

Plutocratic Character of the Centuriate Assembly. — The organization of the centuries had imposed the greatest burdens and conferred the most distinction on the rich and the well-to-do, and it now gave them the preponderance in the government. The prior vote of the equestrian centuries (equites) was often practically decisive on account of the Roman belief in omens, and gave them, the representatives of the rich, a predominating influence. When they and the centuries of the first class were unanimous, they formed