| Politics of theRoman Republic | ||||||||||
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| 509 – 27 BC | ||||||||||
| Constitution and development | ||||||||||
| Magistrates and officials | ||||||||||
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| Senate | ||||||||||
| Assemblies | ||||||||||
| Public law and norms | ||||||||||
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TheRoman assemblies were meetings of theRoman people duly convened by amagistrate. There were two general kinds of assemblies: acontio where a crowd was convened to hear speeches or statements from speakers without any further arrangements and acomitia where citizens were called and arranged into voting blocks.[1]
When called to enact legislation or make decisions, such as on guilt or war, citizens were in the historical period always divided into voting blocks. Citizens voted directly in these blocks, with a majority of the blocks determining the decision of the assembly; this system wasdirectly democratic with norepresentatives. There were three kinds of voting blocks –curiae,centuriae, andtribus – giving rise, respectively, to thecuriate,centuriate, andtribal assemblies. In the middle and late republics, only the centuriate and tribal assemblies were politically relevant.
The assemblieselected all magistrates during theRoman Republic. They also had plenary authority to make laws,[2] but only exercised this authority in accordance with procedures buttressed by Roman religious practices. Prior to a voting assembly, notice had to be given. On the day thereof, the presiding magistrate tookauspices with the gods. When the people were summoned a prayer was conducted and the matter at hand introduced. Speakers invited by the presiding magistrate then could be given; citizens in the assembly had no presumptive right to participate except by listening to the proceedings. When the president called the people to vote, they did so by blocks with a result announced when a majority was reached.[3]
The curiate and centuriate assemblies date to theregal period. Their functions in this early period are poorly documented but mainly relate to the election on the Roman monarch. After theoverthrow of the Roman monarchy (dated traditionally to 509 BC) the centuriate assembly is said to have elected the magistrates that would become the consuls, with the tribal assembly being formed shortly after the creation of the republic. Theplebeian council, on the other hand, was formed and became coequal with the other assemblies over the course of theConflict of the Orders. The fall of the republic did not mean that the assemblies stopped to meet. However, their importance quickly diminished as the emperor accrued direct legislative power and the senate became the de facto electoral assembly. The assemblies had become entirely obsolete by the third century AD.
Acomitia was an assembly summoned to make a decision, about whom should beelected, whether a law should be passed, war and peace, orguilt. Most commonly during the republic,comitia were used for electoral purposes and the wordcomitia in Latin was used a metonymy for them. This contrasted withcontiones (sg.contio) where nothing was enacted.[4]
The wordconcilium (glossed in English as "council") also referred to some kinds of assemblies. This included foreign ones and assemblies of the plebeians at Rome; however, the word could be used to refer to meetings of the whole Roman people.[5] Usage ofconcilium was rare in Latin – reference to an assembly of the tribes under the presidency ofplebeian tribunes only as aconcilium plebis is a modern convention[6] – and there are instances where such an assembly was referred to ascomitia tributa.[7] Similarly, there are instances whereconcilium was used to refer to non-voting assemblies such ascontiones.[8]
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.[9]
By the late republic, thecuriae only met for limited pro forma purposes related topublic religion;[10] 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.[11] 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.[12]
Thecenturiate assembly (Latin:comitia centuriata) was apopular assembly ofancient Rome. In theRoman Republic, its main function was electing theconsuls,praetors, andcensors. It was made up of 193centuries (Latin:centuriae) which were apportioned toRoman citizens by wealth and age, hugely overweighting the old and wealthy.
The assembly, according to the ancient sources, dates to theregal period and initially closely resembled theRoman army of the period in form, with the equestrians serving as cavalry, the upper census classes serving as heavy infantry, and the lower classes serving as light infantry. Whether this was ever the case is unclear; regardless, by the third century BC the assembly did not closely resemble the Roman people under arms and it served a largely electoral purpose, as it was rarely called to vote on legislation or to decide – as was its theoretical legal right as place of final appeal – capital cases.
Assembly procedure was weighted towards the upper classes. Both before and after reforms some time between 241 and 216 BC, the first class and equestrians voted first. Their votes would be tallied and announced. Then the classes would vote in descending order of wealth. Once the requisite number of candidates received a majority of voting units, voting would end. Because the equestrians, first class, and second class made a clear majority of voting units, the lower census classes would never be called on if they were in agreement. There is scholarly disagreement as to the extent to which thecomitia centuriata facilitated competitive elections, even within its de facto restrictive electorate. The traditional view is that Roman elections were largely unrepresentative of the population as a whole and dominated by the wealthy through social connections.
While the assembly continued to exist during theRoman Empire, it served largely to approve decisions made by the emperor and senate. It is last recorded in the third century AD.
Thetribal assembly (Latin:comitia tributa) was one of the popular assemblies ofancient Rome, responsible, along with the plebeian council, for the passage of most Roman laws in the middle and late republics. They were also responsible for the elections of a number of junior magistracies:aediles andquaestors especially.
It organised citizens, by the middle republic, into thirty-fiveartificial tribes which were assigned by geography. The composition of the tribes packed the urban poor into four tribes out of the thirty-five. The requirement that citizens vote in person also discriminated against the rural poor who were not able to travel to Rome.
Each tribe possessed an internal structure and a single vote in the assembly, regardless of the number of citizens belonging to that tribe, which was determined by a majority of the citizens of that tribe present at a vote. Legislative proposals in the assembly as a whole passed when a majority of tribes voted in favour; elections similarly continued until a majority of tribes approved of sufficient candidates that all posts were filled.
The tribal assembly and theplebeian council were organised identically. What differed between them was the presiding magistrate, with the tribal assembly convened byconsuls,praetors, oraediles and the plebeian council convened byplebeian tribunes. After thelex Hortensia in 287 BC endowed the plebeian council with full legislative powers, the two assemblies became practically identical.[14]Theplebeian council (Latin:concilium plebis) was one of the popular assemblies of ancient Rome. In the standard conception of theclassical republican constitution, it was essentially identical to thetribal assembly except that patricians were excluded and it was presided over mainly byplebeian tribunes. The main legislative assembly in the republic, it also elected the plebeian magistrates (tribunes andaediles) and heard some judicial matters.
It is the modern convention to refer to an assembly of the people, organised by tribe and under the presidency of a plebeian tribune, as aconcilium plebis. This was, however, not necessarily the case. Ancient Romans did refer to such assemblies also ascomitia tributa,[15] suggesting that the common distinction betweencomitia andconcilium as meetings of the whole and a part of the people respectively may be erroneous modern constructions.[16]
The Romans believed that the council emerged from theConflict of the Orders, created during a first secession of the plebs traditionally dated to 494 BC. Prior to 471, is not clear how the council was organised. It may have been organised bycuriae, if ancient sources are to be believed, but it is more likely that it was undifferentiated, voting instead by head.[17] Throughout the conflict, the plebeian magistrates are said to have fought with the patricians for political equality and the applicability of the plebeian council's decrees (plebiscita) to all Romans. At the close of this process, with thelex Hortensia in 287 BC, it had achieved both.Thecontio (pl. "contiones"; fromLatin "conventio" meaning "gathering") was an ad hoc public assembly inAncient Rome, which existed during themonarchy as well as in theRoman Republic andRoman Empire.[18] At thecontio,magistrates informed the Roman citizens on various topics related to politics. The main difference between thecontio and other public assemblies in Rome, such as thecomitia, is that the citizens who attendedcontiones were there to hear speeches and not to vote. Thecontio merely served a communicative function, offering magistrates the opportunity to give the people a report of what had been decided during asenate meeting or to discuss a proposed legislative bill (rogatio) in front of the citizens to help them make up their mind before they had to vote on it in other assemblies.[19]
Magistrates also used thecontio as a means of self-promotion, presenting themselves as capable and honest politicians who kept the interests of the people in mind (in other words, adhered to thepopularis ideology), hoping to gain sympathy and support from the people.[20] Aside from a political assembly, the word "contio" could also refer to a type of Romanmilitary speech.