Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/94

74 entire harmony with that view, not only does the curial constitution present itself in Rome, but in the recently discovered scheme of the organization of the Latin communities it appears as an essential part of the Latin municipal system.

It is difficult, on the other hand, to arrive at a satisfactory view of the object and practical value of the scheme now before us. The distribution into curies manifestly constituted its essence. The tribes cannot have been an element of essential importance, for the simple reason that their occurrence at all was, not less than their number, the result of accident; where there were tribes, they certainly had no other significance than that of preserving the remembrance of an epoch when such tribes had themselves been wholes. There is no tradition that the several tribes had special presiding magistrates or special assemblies of their own; and it is extremely probable that, in the interest of the unity of the commonwealth, the tribes out of which it had become fused together were never in reality allowed to have such institutions. In the army, it is true, the infantry had as many pairs of leaders as there were tribes; but each of these pairs of military tribunes did not command the contingent of a tribe; on the contrary, each individually, as well as all in conjunction, exercised command over the whole infantry. The clans and families also must in like manner with the tribes, although for reasons very different, have had a theoretical more than a practical significance under this type of constitution. The limits of the stock and of the household were furnished by nature. The legislative power might interfere with these circles in the way of modification; it might subdivide a larger clan and count it as two, or it might join several weak ones together; it might, indeed, enlarge or diminish even the household in a similar way. Nevertheless, affinity in blood always appeared to the Romans to be at the root of the connection between the members of a clan, and still more between those of a family; and the Roman community can only have interfered with those circles to a limited extent consistent with the retention of their fundamental character of affinity. While, accordingly, the number of households and clans in the Latin communities was origi-