But, as we have noticed already, the plebs, or common people, that is to say, all who were not patricians, began to assert themselves more and more against the government by this patrician, or aristocratic, class. After a while they gained the right of holding their own assembly, called the Comitia (from "co" or "com," meaning together, and "ire" to {180} go)--they "went together" in this assembly. And as they were, of course, far more in number than the Senate, they succeeded by degrees in getting more and more power of law-making and so on into their hands. They, according to the laws which they succeeded in passing, became the chief power in the state, and the Senate was only a bad second to them. But though that was the condition of things according to the law, the power which the Senate retained was, in fact, very considerable, because the Senate, still only a few hundred in number, were always there, in Rome, ready to be called together and come to a decision. The Comitia, composed of members many of whom lived at a distance outside Rome, and not at hand to express their views and give their votes, could not decide matters nearly so quickly; and often, when Rome was so constantly at war, important decisions had to be taken quickly. Chiefly for this reason, though in part for various other reasons too, the power of the Senate was still great, and far greater than it would have been if they had kept strictly to what they were allowed to do by law. The Forum, that famous place of assembly, of which we may still see the remains in Rome, was the site where the Comitia met. It was only those who were owners of land, or who owned property of a certain value, who had the right to vote in the Comitia, and it was a right that belonged only to citizens of the Roman Republic and a few cities outside, which had won this privilege by some special services rendered to the Republic. In its beginnings the Comitia may have been open to patricians only, but by the time that Rome came to take any big part in the story of the {181} world the Comitia had become the assembly of the people, as opposed to the patrician Senate. [Sidenote: The Legions] The ownership of land or of property sufficient to give a man a vote for the Comitia made him a citizen in another sense also, namely, that he was obliged, if summoned, to take arms for the Republic and serve in war, and these citizens, thus summoned, became the famous Roman legions which won battles all over the world. After a while, as the power of Rome extended, legions were formed in subject provinces far away from the capital city, but they were always under the command of Roman officers.