The rights of the people consisted in the legislative power, so far as fundamental national principles were concerned, and in the election of the magistrates. The distinction between the _comitia tributa_ (as independent of the senate) and the _comitia centuriata_ (as dependent on the senate) still existed as to form, but had lost all its importance, the difference between patricians and plebeians being now merely nominal, and the establishment of the _tribus urbanae_, 303, excluding the too great influence of the people (_forensis factio_) upon the _comitia tributa_. The rights of the senate consisted in administering and debating all transitory national affairs, whether foreign relations, (war and peace only excepted, in which the consent of the people was requisite,) financial concerns, or matters regarding domestic peace and security. But the manner in which the senate was supplied must have made it the first political body at that time in the world. The rights and rank of magistrates were founded on their greater or lesser _auspicia_, no public affair being entered upon except _auspicato_. Consequently he only who was in possession of the former could hold the highest civic and military power; (_imperium civile et militare; suis auspiciis rem gerere_;) as dictator, consul, praetor; such was not the case with those who had only the lesser _auspicia_. The union of civil and military power in the person of the same individual was not without its inconveniences, but military despotism was in some measure guarded against by the prohibition of any magistrate possessing military command within Rome itself. We must not dismiss this subject without observing, that as the Roman constitution arose merely out of practice, there never having been any completely written charter, we cannot expect that all the details should be clearly ascertained; to attempt, therefore, in default of such authority, to describe all the minutiae would be the surest way to fall into error. Of the numerous works on the Roman constitution and on Roman antiquities, we shall mention: DE BEAUFORT, _La Republique Romaine, ou plan general de l'ancien gouvernement de Rome_. La Haye, 1766, 2 vols. 4to. A most copious work, and one of the most solid in regard to the matters discussed; although it does not embrace the whole of the subject. _Histoire critique du gouvernement Romain_; Paris, 1765. Containing some acute observations. _Du Gouvernement de la republique Romaine_, _par_ A. AD. DE TEXIER, 3 vols. 8vo. Hamburg, 1796. This contains many enquiries peculiar to the writer. Some learned researches respecting the principal points of the Roman constitution, as SIGONIUS and GRUCHIUS _de comitiis Romanorum_, ZAMOCIUS _de Senatu Romano_, etc. will be found collected in the first two vols, of GRAEVIUS, _Antiq. Roman._