CURIA, among the Romans, also denoted a portion or division of a tribe. In the time of Romulus, a tribe consisted of ten curiæ, or a thousand men; each curia being one hundred. That legislator made the first division of his people into thirty curiæ. Afterwards, curia, or domus curialis, became used for the place where each curia held its assemblies. Hence also curia passed to the senate-house; and it is from hence
the moderns come to use the word curia, "court," for a place of justice, and for the judges, &c. there assembled.
Curia derives the word from cura, "care;" q. d. an assembly of people charged with the care of public affairs. Others deduce it from the Greeks; maintaining, that at Athens they called κωμια the place where the magistrate held his assizes, and the people used to assemble: κωμια, again, may come from κωμια, authority, power; because it was here the laws were made.