The public rights of the individual were also under the control of the _comitia_, and the conferment of citizenship was solely the people’s gift. As originally the patrician _comitia_ could alone coopt patricians,[1173] so in later times the assembly of the whole Populus could alone admit new partners to its rights. Civic rights could be conferred on individuals or communities, in whole or in part, and the Plebs was for this purpose equally competent with the Populus.[1174] A mediate grant of the citizenship could be made by the conferment of the power by the people on a magistrate entrusted with the founding of a settlement, as when the _lex Appuleia_ of 100 B.C. granted the right to Marius to raise three persons to the citizenship in any colony which he planted.[1175] Citizenship might also be conferred by an imperator for good service in the field; but the power had to be given, or perhaps in some cases the grant retrospectively sanctioned, by the people. Such a power was given by law to Pompeius after the war with Sertorius;[1176] but Pompeius may provisionally have conferred the citizenship during the campaign. Marius granted the boon on the field of battle;[1177] he may have already had the power given him by the people,[1178] or he may have calculated on the subsequent ratification of his act. Deprivation of the citizenship of a community, the legality of which by any power was questioned in the later Republic,[1179] could be effected, if at all, only by the people, and the people might in this particular be represented by the Plebs. It was this body which pronounced on the fate of Capua in 210 B.C., and their decision entailed a criminal condemnation, the penalty of being sold into slavery. The people, however, did not itself pronounce deprivation of citizenship, but left the fate of the Capuan burghers to the Senate.[1180] The people might also give the right of voting to those who already possessed citizenship without it. This was so entirely a popular gift that even the previous deliberation of the Senate was not considered necessary for such a conferment. When a tribune proposed to grant the right of suffrage to the _municipia_ of Formiae, Fundi, and Arpinum in 188 B.C., he was met by the veto of four of his colleagues, who insisted that the Senate’s judgment should first be taken. But, yielding to instruction on the true principle of such gifts, they eventually withdrew their opposition.[1181] The deprivation of voting power—_tribu movere_ in the extreme sense—seems to have been retained by the censor,[1182] although a protest against its use to disfranchise a whole class was raised in 169 B.C.[1183]. The people alone could impose a new burden on itself, and taxation belonged wholly to the _comitia_.[1184]