Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/252

* COMITIA. .204 COMITIUM. jorit; of the individual voters in the different curia?. As the number of the curiie was even, and no provision was nuide for deciding in case of there being an equal division on any question, it would seem as if tliis function had not been thought of in fixing the number of the curiip, or had been subordinated to some other considera- tion. The purely [lolitieal importance of the ('oniitia Curiata declined after the political dis- tinctions between patricians and plebeians ter- minated. It retained, however, to a late period its original powers as to the transference of a patrician to the i)Iebeian order and the admis- sion of non-patricians to patrician standing. (2) CoMiTiA Centuriata. By the operation of obvious causes, a great increase soon took place in the number and influence of the de-* pendent members of the Roman Commonwealth. As a natural consequence, the way was paved for a reform of the Constitution, though we may well conceive that the step was hastened by the gradual thinning of the ranks of the old freeholders in the incessant wars in which Rome found herself involved with her neighbors. Thus, in the course of time a new class, the plebeians of history, arose out of the clients, preponderat- ing in numbers, and by no means destitute of wealth. Though this class had not, perhaps, the rights of citizens, it was exempt from ser- vice in the field; and while the political inferior- ity of its members must have been galling, their immunity from the chances of war can hardly have been looked upon with equanimity by the ruling faction. It was to redress this twofold grievance that the reform ascribed to King Ser- ving Tullius is generally believed to have been effected. But the whole scheme was one skill- fully devised to assign dvities to the plebeians rather than to bestow upon them rights, and it was evidently the work of a statesman who was in the interest of the patricians. The chief au- thorities for the details of the arrangement are Livy and Dionysius, whose accounts, though they differ in some particulars, agree in the main. We must bear in mind, however, that both of tbem describe the assembly of the centuries rather as it existed in their own day than as it was first constituted. Livy gives the whole num- ber of the centuries as 104; Dionysius makes them 103. The voting of the assembly was by centuries, each possessing a collective vote exact- ly as in the case of the curi;p. It was so ar- ranged that the eighteen centuries of equites and the eighty centuries of the first class voted first. If they were agreed upon a question at issue, the other side were not called upon to vote at all. As the centuries, though nominally 'hundreds,' probably contained in the first class fewer, and in some of the other classes certainly many times more than that number, it is plain that in the assembly by far the largest share of power was retained in the hands of the wealthy, of whom the original burgess element would long form the main portion. How far we have in this scheme merely a modification of an ear- lier arrangement, there are no means of deter- mining. As !Mommsen remarks, it is more than probable that the original assessments were laid upon land. Be this as it maj', the reform of Servius was originally a new military rather than a new political organization, its author in- tending that the privileges of the patricians as- sembled in the curiie should remain as before. But its results were different from what had been anticipated. By a process easily understood, the rights of the curise graduallj' i)assed to the cen- turies. The assembly of the former continued, indeed, to meet; but the assembly of the latter became thenceforth the chief guardian of the rights of the Roman people. (3) CoMiTiA Tricuta. The further develop- ment of the democratic element in the Roman Constitution, consequent on the change just de- scribed, soon led to a demand for greater changes in the same direction. The tribunes of the peo- ple, now the acknowledged leaders of the democ- racy, took advantage of an ancient division of the original territory of Rome into tribes to give greater prominence to this element than it had }'et possessed. These tribes, thirty, and afterwards thirty-five, in number, which, as is supposed by some, had already supplied a basis for the arrangement into curia; as well as classes, seem to have at first existed for purely local purposes. But the leaders of the people succeed- ed at length in forming them into a |)olitical union entitled to exercise certain functions, chief among which was the election of the inferior magistrates, and the approval and rejection of such legislative measures as aiTected the inter- ests of the plebeians as a class. Whether the assembly of the' tribes was composed only of plebei- ans, or of all, whether patrician or plebeian, liv- ing within certain limits, has not been ascer- tained; but the balance of opinion inclines to the hypothesis that it consisted of plebeians alone. After the rise of this new power, it be- came a matter of great difficulty to determine what questions were to be submitted to the tribes, and what to the centuries, each claiming to be the real representatives of the whole body of the people. A solution appears to have been sought and found in some combination of the two rival assemblies. At what time this change took place, and what was its exact nature, are matters which remain involved in the greatest obscurity. All that can be said is this: The plebeians, either by means of their own assembly, or by some use of it to counterbalance the power of the patricians in the assembly of the cen- turies, ultimately gained what they had so long aimed at — a position of supreme importance to the Repul)lic. When the wealthier classes found their influence thus neutralized, they ceased to attend the comitia altogether, and the popular will was represented by the lower classes alone. A period of moral and political corruption fol- lowed, ending in the military despotism of the Ciesars. Under the first emperor^ the form of calling the assemblies together was still observed; but the people met no longer to control their chief ruler, but simply to receive information as to what he had done. Even this form was by and by discontinued, and in the last days of the Empire the comitia was an institution known only as one of the traditions of the past greatness of Rome. Consult Mommsen, Riimische Fonschviujr-'i. vol. i. ; and see Rome. COMITIUM (Lat., place of assembly). A small square in ancient Rome, between the Forum and the Senate House. It was originally the polling-place of Rome, where the Comitia Curiata met and important cases were tried. It contained the old rostra, and near by was the Clra>costnsis, or platform for foreign ambassa- dors. On it stood a number of statues, includ-