| Politics of theRoman Republic | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||
| 509 – 27 BC | ||||||||||
| Constitution and development | ||||||||||
| Magistrates and officials | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Senate | ||||||||||
| Assemblies | ||||||||||
| Public law and norms | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
Thecuriate assembly (Latin:comitia curiata) was one of the assemblies of theRoman Republic and the oldest assembly at Rome. It was organised on the basis ofcuriae and is said to have been the main legislative and electoral assembly of the regal and early republican periods. Little concrete is known of its origins and early operation.[1]
By the late republic, thecuriae only met for limited pro forma purposes related topublic religion;[2] the historical thirtycuriae were each represented by a singlelictor rather than actual groups of citizens. The foremost of these purposes was thelex curiata de imperio, passed as a matter of course in the presence of threeaugurs, which related to the quality of a curule magistrate'sauspices.[3] When it met under the presidency of thepontifex maximus, the assembly was instead called thecomitia calata to deal with matters relating to wills and selection of priests.[4]
Livy's first pentad describes thecomitia curiata as having a role in the election of kings: after the death of the king and the senate's appointment ofinterreges, aninterrex would put forward a candidate to the assembly for its approval.[5] However, suggestions of the curiate assembly's role in the regal period with the passage of public law are speculative.[6]
During the late republic, which provides essentially the only evidence of thecomitia curiata's operations, the assembly was retained in a symbolic form for disposition of religious affairs. There were two kinds of curiate assembly which differed only in the presiding magistrate: a formalcomitia curiata under one of the curule magistrates and acomitia calata under thepontifex maximus.[7]
Acomitia curiata dealt mainly with the passage of thelex curiata de imperio, a law which gave a newly elected magistrate some kind of further authority or legitimacy in their command. Scholars have suggested that it emerged as a mechanism to confirm, for purposes of archaic law, magistrates elected by the newer assemblies. However, by the late republic the passage of such a law was no longer necessary for a magistrate or promagistrate to actually exerciseimperium.[8][9]
It also had authority relating to the ratification of wills. However, by the late republic wills were no longer made by ratification before thecuriae.[10] They also had a role in recognising adoptions, which when before the people by law were formally anadrogatio.[11]
Thecomitia curiata met in thecomitium in theRoman Forum, though it is possible that other locations were also acceptable.[12] In the late republic, instead of actually being made up of citizens assigned to curiae, each of the thirtycuriae were represented in the assembly by a single lictor.[4] While every citizen was theoretically assigned to acuria – contraNiebuhr andMommsen, there is no evidence that membership in thecuriae was limited topatricians – by the late republic it was common for citizens not to know whichcuria was theirs.[13] It is also likely that laws pertaining to delays between the promulgation of bills and votes on them, such as thelex Caecilia et Didia of 98 BC, did not apply to the curiate assembly.[14]
The Romans believed that thecuriae traced to the earliest times, having been created by the legendary first monarchRomulus and named for theSabine women.[15] Each set of tencuriae were assigned to one of the ancientRomulean tribes that were said to also date to the founding.[16] Citizens were assigned to theircuria by birth, though there is no indication that all the members ofcuria were actually related.[17] The earliest assignment may have been in reference to geographic divisions in Rome, with eachcuria having a traditional meeting place and boundaries,[18] as suggested by an etymology derivingcuria fromco-viria.[19]
Eight curiate names are known:Veliensis,Foriensis,Titia,Faucia,Velitia,Acculeia,Tifata, andRapta.[20] The last name,Rapta, has been suggested as giving rise to the story of therape of the Sabine women.[21] Eachcuria also retained for religious functions a leader called acurio,[22] with a superintendingcurio maximus.[23]
The sources claim that the curiate assembly had a role in the acclamation of kings, with thelex curiata de imperio serving as a military oath binding the people to royalimperium while the people made noise with their weapons in approval.[24]
In the earliest times it is possible that the curiate assembly, like the later centuriate assembly, represented a somewhat confederal people under arms led in peacetime by aristocratic clans.[25] Whether or not this is the case, it is likely that by the fifth century BC the assembly was already functionally obsolete,[26] being superseded by thecenturiate assembly attributed to Servius Tullius and thetribal assembly.[27]
There are some indications that theplebeian council was convened in the earliest times bycuriae rather than by tribes.[28] But it is more likely that prior to reforms reorganising the council tribally, attributed to Volero Publilius and traditionally dated to 471 BC,[29] people instead voted by head as in most Greek city-state assemblies.[30] Alternatively, the tribunes could have been elected and legislated before unofficial tribal assemblies before securing their ratification by the community as a whole in 471.[31]
More influential, however, was the precedent that the curiate system had on later assemblies. The artificial units or block votes into which each citizen was assigned meant that the Romans viewed "the people" as a collection of these voting blocks rather than as individual citizens, meaning that actual level of participation by citizens was constitutionally irrelevant.[32] This substitution of voting blocks for the actual citizenry was taken to an extreme in the later curiate assembly's ritualistic use of a single lictor to represent eachcuria.[33]
Operations of the curiate assembly in the late republic, and even for the earlier regal period, were likely not competitive: instead, it was used to ritualistically to establish popular consensus by unanimity.[34] There are a few episodes in the late republic where the formalities of the curiate assembly became relevant.
Its role in recognising adoptions came up in 59 and 43 BC with the adoptions ofPublius Clodius Pulcher andOctavian, respectively. Acomitia calata met in 59 BC under thepontifex maximus' presidency to ratify the adoption ofPublius Clodius Pulcher;[35] it also met in September 43 to make Octavian the adoptive heir of Caesar.[36]
The formalities of confirming elected magistrates'imperium also became relevant in 54 BC when meetings of the curiate assembly were obstructed by veto. What followed was a rather sordid affair where the two consuls, seeking a fabricatedlex curiata and good provincial assignments, induced two consular candidates to put up false witnesses to testify as to fictitious meetings of the assembly and senate to that effect.[37] The extent of the scheme shows that the lack of such a law was perceived as important,[33][38] but the two consuls regardless left to their provinces probably without it.[39] Dio also claims that the republican magistrates driven from Rome byCaesar's civil war claimed lack of alex curiata also made it impossible for them to create their successors.[40]