THE ROMAN ASSEMBLIES [Illustration] THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK. BOSTON. CHICAGO ATLANTA. SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON. BOMBAY. CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO THE ROMAN ASSEMBLIES FROM THEIR ORIGIN TO THE END OF THE REPUBLIC BY GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AUTHOR OF “THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION,” “A HISTORY OF GREECE,” “A HISTORY OF ROME,” “AN ANCIENT HISTORY,” ETC. New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1909 _All rights reserved_ COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1909. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. To MY WIFE Οὐ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ γε κρεῖσσον καὶ ἄρειον, Ἢ ὅθ’ ὁμοφρονέοντε νοήμασιν οἶκον ἔχητον Ἀνὴρ ἠδὲ γυνή· πόλλ’ ἄλγεα δυσμενέεσσι, Χάρματα δ’ εὐμενέτησι· μάλιστα δέ τ’ ἔκλυον αὐτοί. PREFACE This volume is the first to offer in monographic form a detailed treatment of the popular assemblies of ancient Rome. Necessarily much of the material in it may be found in earlier works; but recent progress in the field, involving a reaction against certain theories of Niebuhr and Mommsen affecting the comitia, justifies a systematic presentation of existing knowledge of the subject. This task has required patient labor extending through many years. The known sources and practically all the modern authorities have been utilized. A determination to keep free from conventional ideas, so as to look at the sources freshly and with open mind, has brought views of the assemblies not found in other books. The reader is earnestly requested not to reject an interpretation because it seems new but to examine carefully the grounds on which it is given. In general the aim has been to follow a conservative historical method as opposed to the radical juristic, to build up generalizations on facts rather than to estimate sources by the criterion of a preconceived theory. The primary object of the volume, however, is not to defend a point of view but to serve as a book of study and reference for those who are interested in the history, law, and constitution of ancient Rome and in comparative institutional research.