Without deciding now whether this third arrangement was good or bad in itself, I think I may assert that it could have been made practicable only by the simple morals, the disinterestedness, the liking for agriculture and the scorn for commerce and for love of gain which characterised the early Romans. Where is the modern people among whom consuming greed, unrest, intrigue, continual removals, and perpetual changes of fortune, could let such a system last for twenty years without turning the State upside down? We must indeed observe that morality and the censorship, being stronger than this institution, corrected its defects at Rome, and that the rich man found himself degraded to the class of the poor for making too much display of his riches. From all this it is easy to understand why only five classes are almost always mentioned, though there were really six. The sixth, as it furnished neither soldiers to the army nor votes in the Campus Martius,[1] and was almost without function in the State, was seldom regarded as of any account. These were the various ways in which the Roman people was divided. Let us now see the effect on the assemblies. When lawfully summoned, these were called _comitia_: they were usually held in the public square at Rome or in the Campus Martius, and were distinguished as _Comitia Curiata, Comitia Centuriata_, and _Comitia Tributa_, according to the form under which they were convoked. The _Comitia Curiata_ were founded by Romulus; the _Centuriata_ by Servius; and the _Tributa_ by the tribunes of the people. No law received its sanction and no magistrate was elected, save in the comitia; and as every citizen was enrolled in a _curia_, a century, or a tribe, it follows that no citizen was excluded from the right of voting, and that the Roman people was truly sovereign both _de jure_ and _de facto_. For the comitia to be lawfully assembled, and for their acts to have the force of law, three conditions were necessary. First, the body or magistrate convoking them had to possess the necessary authority; secondly, the assembly had to be held on a day allowed by law; and thirdly, the auguries had to be favourable. The reason for the first regulation needs no explanation; the second is a matter of policy. Thus, the comitia might not be held on festivals or market-days, when the country-folk, coming to Rome on business, had not time to spend the day in the public square. By means of the third, the senate held in check the proud and restive people, and meetly restrained the ardour of seditious tribunes, who, however, found more than one way of escaping this hindrance.