Curiate assembly
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The curiate assembly (Latin: comitia curiata) was one of the citizens' assemblies of the Roman Republic. It was organised on the basis of curiae and is said to have been the main legislative and electoral assembly of the regal and early republican periods.
By the late republic, the curiae only met for limited pro forma purposes related to public religion;[1] the historical thirty curiae were each represented by a single lictor rather than actual groups of citizens. The foremost of these purposes was the lex curiata de imperio, passed as a matter of course in the presence of three augurs, which related to the quality of a curule magistrate's auspices.[2] When it met under the presidency of the pontifex maximus, also for religious purposes, the assembly was instead called the comitia calata.
History
editOrigins
editThe Romans believed that the curiae traced to the earliest times, having been created by the legendary first monarch Romulus and named for the Sabine women.[3] Each set of ten curiae were assigned to one of the ancient Romulean tribes that were said to also date to the founding.[4] Citizens were assigned to their curia by birth, though there is no indication that all the members of curia were actually related.[5] The earliest assignment may have been in reference to geographic divisions in Rome, with each curia having a traditional meeting place and boundaries.[6]
Eight curiate names are known: Veliensis, Foriensis, Titia, Faucia, Velitia, Acculeia, Tifata, and Rapta.[7] The last name, Rapta, has been suggested as giving rise to the story of the rape of the Sabine women.[8]
Early republic
editDecline
editLate republic
editDuties and procedure
editReferences
edit- ^ Lintott 1999, p. 49, noting the curiate assembly "existed only in a symbolic and ritualised form".
- ^ Vervaet 2015, pp. 215–16.
- ^ Lintott 1999, p. 49, citing among others Livy, 1.13.6, 9.38.15.
- ^ Cornell 1995, p. 115.
- ^ Cornell 1995, p. 116, citing Gell. NA, 15.27.
- ^ Cornell 1995, p. 117, citing Plin. NH, 18.8.
- ^ Cornell 1995, p. 117, presenting in this order; the first two are geographic, the next four are named for "very obscure" clans; the last two are "mysterious".
- ^ Cornell 1995, p. 117.
Bibliography
editModern sources
edit- Cornell, Tim (1995). The beginnings of Rome. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-01596-0. OCLC 31515793.
- Cornell, Tim C (2022). "Roman political assemblies". In Arena, Valentina; Prag, Jonathan (eds.). Companion to the political culture of the Roman republic. Wiley Blackwell. pp. 220–35. ISBN 978-1-119-67365-1. LCCN 2021024437.
- Forsythe, Gary (2005). A critical history of early Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-94029-1. OCLC 70728478.
- Lintott, Andrew (1999). Constitution of the Roman republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926108-6. Reprinted 2009.
- Tatum, W Jeffrey (1999). The patrician tribune: Publius Clodius Pulcher. Studies in the history of Greece and Rome (Paperback ed.). University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-7206-2. LCCN 98-37096.
- Vervaet, Frederik Juliaan (2015). "The "lex curiata" and the patrician auspices". Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz. 26: 201–224. ISSN 1016-9008. JSTOR 44945732.
Ancient sources
edit- Livy (1905) [1st century AD]. . Translated by Roberts, Canon – via Wikisource.