CHAPTER XII THE COMITIA TRIBUTA AND THE RISE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY, TO 449 262-282 CHAPTER XIII THE COMITIA TRIBUTA AND THE RISE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY, FROM 449 TO 287 283-316 CHAPTER XIV THE JUDICIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE COMITIA TRIBUTA, FROM 287 TO THE END OF THE REPUBLIC 317-329 CHAPTER XV COMITIAL LEGISLATION, FROM HORTENSIUS TO THE GRACCHI 330-362 CHAPTER XVI COMITIAL LEGISLATION, FROM THE GRACCHI TO SULLA 363-411 CHAPTER XVII COMITIAL LEGISLATION, FROM SULLA TO THE END OF THE REPUBLIC 412-461 CHAPTER XVIII THE COMPOSITION AND PRESERVATION OF STATUTES, COMITIAL PROCEDURE, AND COMITIAL DAYS 462-472 CHAPTER XIX A SUMMARY OF COMITIAL HISTORY 473-477 BIBLIOGRAPHY 479-498 INDEX 499-521 THE ROMAN ASSEMBLIES PART I ELEMENTS OF THE COMITIAL CONSTITUTION CHAPTER I THE POPULUS AND ITS EARLIEST POLITICAL DIVISIONS I. _The Populus_ The derivation of populus, “people,” “folk,” is unknown. Attempts have been made to connect it with populari, “to devastate,” so as to give it primarily a military signification—perhaps simply “the army.”[1] In the opinion of others it is akin to plēnus, plēbes, πλῆθος, πολύς, πίμπλημι,[2] in which case it would signify “multitude,” “mass,” with the idea of collective strength, which might readily pass into “army” as a secondary meaning.[3] Fundamentally personal, it included all those individuals, not only the grown men but their families as well, who collectively made up the state, whether Roman or foreign, monarchical or republican.[4] Only in a transferred sense did it apply to territory.[5] The ancient definition, “an association based on the common acceptance of the same body of laws and on the general participation in public benefits,”[6] is doubtless too abstract for the beginnings of Rome. Citizenship—membership in the populus—with all that it involved is elaborately defined by the Roman jurists;[7] but for the earlier period it will serve the purpose of the present study to mention that the three characteristic public functions of the citizen were military service, participation in worship, and attendance at the assembly.[8] In a narrower sense populus signifies “the people,” “masses,” in contrast with the magistrates or with the senate, as in the well known phrase, senatus populusque Romanus. II. _The Three Primitive Tribes_