to the capital, where he would be temporarily subject to senatorial control. This provision of 215 was therefore an important step in the development of the imperium; and at the same time it tended to destroy the little importance still attaching to the curiate law. It seems to have been after this event and partly in consequence of it[1170] that the comitia curiata, which had long been declining, became at last a mere formality, attended by none but three augurs as witnesses to the proceedings[1171] and thirty lictors,[1172] who meekly[1173] cast the votes in obedience to the command of the presiding magistrates.[1174] It is a noteworthy fact that whereas the statesman Cicero has much to say of the curiate law, Livy and Dionysius make little reference to it. Our conclusion must be that it was more important in the late republic than in the earlier time. Probably it nearly fell into disuse after 215, to be revived some time before Cicero. Its rehabilitation was the work of the optimates, for we find the senatorial party chiefly interested in maintaining it during the age of Cicero. Since the lex curiata, subject as it was to impetrative auspices and to obnuntiations, correlated closely with the Aelian and Fufian statutes, we may reasonably connect its revival closely with their origin. Cicero[1175] tells us accordingly that the comitia curiata have continued merely for the sake of the auspices. The curtailment of the power of this assembly is analogous to the curtailment of the power of the king; as the latter was reduced, in the rex sacrorum, to a shadow continued merely for a religious purpose, the curiate comitia were likewise reduced to a shadow maintained in appearance merely for keeping up an ancient custom and for the auspices connected therewith,[1176] but in reality as a part of the religious machinery operated with more or less effect for controlling refractory office-holders. During the age of Cicero the senate strove to uphold its theory of the necessity of the law, while individuals in office and even the entire group of magistrates for the year looked upon it as appropriate indeed but unessential to their functions. At its best the theory could be but partially realized in practice.