juniores, continued to exist as before, but henceforth they were
most closely united with the tribes, whereas before the tribes had
been mere local divisions and entirely independent of property. The
union now effected was that the classes became subdivisions of the
tribes, and that accordingly centuries occur both in the classes
and in the tribes. Each tribe contained ten centuries, two of the
first class (one of the seniores and one of the juniores), two of
the second (likewise seniores and juniores), two of the third, two
of the fourth, and two of the fifth class. The equites were likewise
divided according to tribes and centuries, and they seem to have
voted with the first class, and to have been in fact included in it,
so as to be called centuries of the first class. The centuries of
the cornicines, tubicines and fabri, which are no longer mentioned,
probably ceased to exist as distinct centuries. The voting by tribes
can hardly be conceived, except in those cases in which the ten
centuries of every tribe were unanimous; this may have been the
case very often, and when it was so, the tribus praerogativa was
certainly the tribe chosen by lot to give its unanimous vote first.
But if there was any difference of opinion among the centuries making
up a tribe, the true majority could only be ascertained by choosing
by lot one of the 70 centuriae of the first class to give its vote
first, or rather it was decided by lot from which tribe the two
centuries of the first class were to be taken to give their vote
first. (Hence the plural _praerogativae_.) The tribe, moreover, to
which those centuries belonged which voted first, was itself likewise
called tribus praerogativa. Of the two centuries, again, that of
seniores gave its vote before the juniores, and in the documents
both were called by the name of their tribe, as _Galeria juniorum_,
_i.e._ the juniores of the first class in the tribus Galeria,
_Aniensis juniorum, Veturia juniorum_. As soon as the praerogativa
had voted, the renuntiatio took place, and the remaining centuries
then deliberated whether they should vote the same way or not. When
this was done all the centuries of the first tribe proceeded to vote
at once, for there would not have been time for the 350 centuries
to vote one after another, as was done by the 193 centuries in
the comitia centuriata.--These comitia of the centuries combined
with the tribes were far more democratical than the comitia of the
centuries; they continued to be held, and preserved their power along
with the comitia tributa, even after the latter had acquired their
supreme importance in the republic. During the time of the moral and
political corruption of the Romans, the latter appear to have been
chiefly attended by the populace, which was guided by the tribunes,
and the wealthier and more respectable citizens had little influence
in them. When the libertini and all the Italians were incorporated
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