political purposes dates back, according to Livy,[707] to the beginning of the Samnite wars. Although this may be an anticipation of later conditions, there can be no doubt as to the attitude of statesmen toward the custom in the closing years of the Punic wars.[708] In the time of Clodius and Cicero, while some maintained a sincere belief in these ceremonies, doubtless the great majority of public men saw in their use nothing more than political chicanery calculated, by deceiving the multitude, to keep the real power in the hands of a few.[709] Rubino, J., _Untersuchungen über röm. Verfassung und Geschichte_, 34-106; Nissen, H., _Das Templum_; Mommsen, _Röm. Staatsrecht_, i. 76-116; Marquardt, J., _Röm. Staatsverwaltung_, iii. 397-415; Lange, L., _Röm. Altertümer_, 3 vols, index s. Augures, Auspicia, Inauguratio, etc.; _De legibus Aelia et Fufia commentatio_, in _Kleine Schriften_, i. 274-341; Herzog, E., _Geschichte und System der röm. Staatsverfassung_, 621-30, see also index s. Augures, Auspicien; Müller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. 114-27; Gilbert, O., _Geschichte und Topographie der Stadt Rom im Altertum_, 3 vols., index s. Auguraculum, Augures; Wissowa, G., _Religion und Kultus der Römer_, 450-60; _Augures_, in Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl._ ii. 2313-44; _Auspicium_, ibid. ii. 2580-7; Aust, E., _Religion der Römer_, index s. Auguraculum, Augurn, Auspicia, etc.; _Iuppiter Elicius_, in Roscher, _Ausführliches Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 656-61; Bouché-Leclerq, A., _Histoire de la Divination dans Antiquité_, iv. 134-285 (sources and modern literature, p. 180 f.); _Augures_, in Daremberg et Saglio, _Dict._ i. 550-60; _Auspicia_, ibid. i. 580-5; Spinazzola, V., _Augures_, in Ruggiero, _Dizionario epigrafico_, i. 778-810; Ruggiero, ibid. i. 950 f.; De Marchi, A., _Il Culto privato di Roma antica_, i. 152 ff., 232 ff.; Valeton, I. M. J., _De modis auspicandi Romanorum_, in _Mnemosyne_, N. S. xvii (1889). 275-325, 418-52; xviii. 208-64, 406-56; _De iure obnuntiandi comitiis et conciliis_, ibid. xix (1891). 75-113, 229-70; _De templis Romanis_, ibid. xx (1892). 338-90; xxi. 62-91, 397-440; xxiii. 15-79; xxv. 93-144, 361-85; xxvi. 1-93 (papers in the last two vols. are on the pomerium); Luterbacher, F., _Der Prodigienglaube und Prodigienstil der Römer_, 2 ed.; Wülker, L., _Die geschichtliche Entwickelung des Prodigienswesens bei den Römern_; Willoughby, W. W., _Political Theories of the Ancient World_, ch. xv. PART II THE ASSEMBLIES ORGANIZATION, PROCEDURE, AND FUNCTIONS, RESOLUTIONS, STATUTES, AND CASES CHAPTER VI COMITIA AND CONCILIUM