We need not hesitate to begin with the unorganized contio as the earliest form of Roman assembly, to which we may attach the other features of the European gathering named above. The first problem is to determine under what influence and for what purpose the gathering of the people came to be organized in curiae. The notion that the object was primarily for voting is groundless. The Athenians had the germ of a tribal assembly in the division of the people by phylae on the occasion of ostracophory[859] and of the passing of other privilegia (νόμοι ἐπ’ ἀνδρί). The organization was not in this case for the purpose of using the tribes as voting units, but merely for bringing order and solemnity to the proceeding. Apparently the assembly of Alamanni was arrayed in military form for ratifying emancipations,[860] though in the process the military companies did not vote as units. In like manner, but for a wider range of functions, we find at Rome the meeting of the people in curiae, less frequently in centuries, merely for listening, for witnessing, or for receiving purification. The circumstances that the business of such assemblies was largely religious, and of such a character that it must have originated in the earliest Roman times, and that in the greater number of cases these gatherings were under sacerdotal presidency suggest that the sacerdotes, particularly the pontiffs, introduced the curiate organization from the army to make their religious meetings more orderly and dignified.[861]