The Roman assemblies from their origin to the end of the RepublicBotsford, George Willis
History
The Roman assemblies from their origin to the end of the Republic
Botsford, George Willis
Constitutional law -- Rome; Rome -- Politics and government
being distributed as follows: in the first class eight, in the second,
third, and fourth respectively two, in the fifth three.[1300] But bearing
in mind that these tribes were primarily local, we cannot at the same
time regard them as census groups without ascribing to them an impossibly
artificial character. For this reason the theory of Huschke should be
rejected. To avoid this difficulty, while retaining the classes, the
assumption has been made that the classes were subdivisions of the
century, in other words that each century contained men of every class.
This view is invalidated by the fact that the centuries continued to
be divisions of the classes, which were still called to vote in their
order.[1301]
The assumption of a diminution in number having proved untenable, the
conclusion is that there was an increase.[1302] In view of the facts
(1) that the reformed organization rested on a tribal basis,[1303] (2)
that the centuries were divisions not only of the tribes[1304] but also
of the classes,[1305] (3) that the tribes could not have been divisions
of the classes,[1306] it is necessary to conclude that the classes were
themselves divisions of the tribes with the centuries as subdivisions.
In other words, the work of organization took place within the tribe:
the members of a tribe were first divided into five classes according to
their wealth; within each class the men were grouped on the basis of age
into juniors and seniors,[1307] one century for each within the several
classes, making ten centuries of juniors to the tribe, or in all three
hundred and fifty tribal centuries, to which are to be added eighteen
centuries of knights and probably five supernumerary centuries, amounting
to a total of three hundred and seventy-three. This is substantially the
view of Pantagathus.[1308] Convincing evidence is afforded by a group of
inscriptions of the imperial period.[1309] From them we learn that under
the emperors the urban tribes comprised severally (1) a corpus seniorum,
(2) a corpus iuniorum, (3) the tribus Sucusana a corpus Iulianum, and the
Palatine and Esquiline each a corpus Augustale. Every corpus consisted of
several centuries. In the corpus Sucusana iuniorum were eight centuries
divided into two groups of five and three respectively, the first group
being evidently superior to the second. At the head of the century was a
centurio or curator.[1310] Eliminating the corpora which were named after
emperors and which must have been instituted in their time, eliminating
also the inferior centuries of the corpora seniorum and iuniorum, which
were undoubtedly added either by the emperors or by the late republican
censors, we have remaining five centuries to the corpus as it must
have stood in the period immediately following the reform. This result
confirms the view suggested by Pantagathus.
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