in Roman Antiquity, general assemblies of the people, convened by a magistrate for the purpose of putting any subject to their vote.

The proper comitia were of three sorts, curiata, centuriata, and tributa, with reference to the three grand divisions of the city and people into curiae, centuriae, and tribes; for by comitia calata were meant all the comitia in general, the term calata (from calare, i.e., vocare) being their common epithet, though it was at last restricted to assemblies for the creation of priests, and the regulation of last wills and testaments, to which the people acted as witnesses merely.

The comitia curiata owed its origin to the division which Romulus made of the people into thirty curiae, ten being contained in every curia. The curiae answered in most respects to the parishes in our cities, being not only separated by proper bounds and limits, but distinguished too by the different places set apart in each for the celebration of religious service, which was performed by particular priests (called curiones), one to every curia.

Before the institution of the comitia centuriata, all the great concerns of the state were transacted in the assembly of the curiae; as the election of kings and other chief officers, the making and abrogating of laws, and the judging of capital crimes. After the expulsion of the kings, when the commons had obtained the privilege of having tribunes and ediles, they were for some time elected at these assemblies; but that ceremony being at length transferred to the comitia tributa, the curiae were never convened to give their votes, excepting upon occasion of making some particular law, relating to adoptions, wills, and testaments, or the creation of officers for an expedition, or for electing some of the priests, as the flamines, and the curio maximus, who were themselves chosen by every particular curia. The power of calling these assemblies belonged at first only to the kings; but on the establishment of the democracy, this privilege was allowed to most of the magistrates, and sometimes to the pontifices.

The persons who had the liberty of voting were such Roman citizens as belonged to the curiae, or actually lived in the city, and conformed to the customs and rites of their proper curiae; and all were excluded who dwelt without the bounds of the city, or retained the ceremonies of their own country, even although they had been honoured with the jus civitatis. (See Citizens.) The place where the curiae met was the comitium, a part of the forum. No fixed time was appointed for holding any of the comitia, but they were convened as business required.

The people being met together, and confirmed by the report of good omens from the augurs, which was necessary in all the assemblies, the rogatio or business to be proposed to them was publicly read. After this, if none of the magistrates interposed, upon the order of him who presided in the comitia the people divided into their proper curiae, and consulted of the matter; and then the curiae on being called out, as it happened by lot, gave their votes man by man, in ancient times rixae roce, and afterwards by tablets; the most votes in every curia going for the voice of the whole curia, and the most curiae for the general consent of the people.

In the time of Cicero, the comitia curiata were so much out of fashion that they were formed only by thirty lictors representing the thirty curiae; whence, in his second oration against Rullus, he calls them comitia adumbrata.

The comitia centuriata were instituted by Servius Tullius, who had obliged every one to give a true account of what he was worth, and divided the people, according to the returns, into six ranks or classes, which he subdivided into a hundred and ninety-three centuries. The first class, containing the equites and richest citizens, consisted of ninety-eight centuries. The second, including the tradesmen and mechanics, consisted of twenty-two centuries; the third of twenty; the fourth of twenty-two; the fifth of thirty; and the sixth, composed of the poorer sort, of only one century; but this though it had the same name with the rest, yet was seldom regarded, and scarcely allowed any power in public matters. Hence it is common with the Roman authors, when they speak of the classes, to reckon no more than five, the sixth not being worth their notice. This last classis or order was divided into two parts or orders, the proletarii and the capitae censi. The former, as their name implies, were designed purely to stock the republic with men, since they could supply it with so little money;

and the latter, who paid the lowest tax of all, were rather counted and marshalled by their heads than by their estates. See CAPITIA CENSIL

Persons of the first rank, by reason of their pre-eminence, had the name of classici; and hence the name of classici auctores came to signify the most approved writers. All others, of what classis soever, were said to be infra classem.

The assembly of the people by centuries was held for the election of consuls, censors, and praetors; as also for the judging of persons accused of what was called crimen perduellionis, or actions by which the party had showed himself an enemy to the state, and for the confirmation of all such laws as were proposed by the chief magistrates, who had the privilege of calling these assemblies.

The place appointed for their meeting was the Campus Martius; because, in the primitive times of the commonwealth, when they were under continual apprehensions of enemies, the people, to prevent any sudden assault, went armed, in martial order, to hold these assemblies, and were for that reason forbidden by the laws to meet in the city, because an army was upon no account to be marshalled within the walls; yet in later ages it was thought sufficient to place a body of soldiers as a guard in the Janiculum, where an imperial standard was erected, and the taking down of which denoted the conclusion of the comitia.

Though the time of holding these comitia for other matters was undetermined, yet the magistrates, after the year of the city 601, when they began to enter upon office on the kalends of January, were constantly designated (designati) about the end of July and the beginning of August.

All the time between their election and confirmation they continued as private persons, that inquisition might be made into the election, and that the other candidates might have time to enter objections, if they thought fit to do so. Yet at the election of the censors this custom did not hold; for as soon as they were elected they were immediately invested with the honour.

By the institution of these comitia, Servius Tullius secretly conveyed the whole of the power from the commons; for the centuries of the first and richest class, who were called out first, being more numerous by three than all the rest put together, if they agreed, as they generally did, the business was already decided, and the other classes were needless and insignificant. However, the three last scarcely ever came to vote.

In the time of freedom, the commons, in order to remedy this disadvantage, obtained that, before the centuries proceeded to vote any matter at these comitia, that century should give its suffrages first upon which it fell by lot to do so, with the name of centuria prerogativa; while the rest were to follow according to the order of their classes. After the constitution of the thirty-five tribes into which the classes and their centuries were divided, the tribes cast lots, in the first place which should be the prerogative tribe, and then the centuries of the tribes also cast lots for the honour of being a prerogative century. All the other tribes and centuries had the appellation of jure recato, because they were called out according to their proper places.

The prerogative century being chosen by lot, the chief magistrate, sitting in a tent in the middle of the Campus Martius, ordered that century to come out and give their voices; upon which they presently separated from the rest of the multitude, and came into an inclosed apartment, which they termed septa or orilia, passing over the pontes or narrow boards laid there for the occasion; on which account de pontibus dejici signifies to be denied the privilege of voting; and persons thus dealt with were called depontani.

At the further end of the pontes stood the diribitores (a sort of under officers, so called from their marshalling the people), who delivered to every man, in the election of Comitia magistrates, as many tablets as there appeared candidates, and one of these names was written upon every tablet. A proper number of great chests were set ready in the septa, and every voter threw in which tablet he pleased.

Close by the chests were stationed some of the public servants, who took out the tablets of every century, and for every tablet made a prick or a point in another tablet, which was kept for the purpose. Thus, the business being decided by most points, gave occasion to the phrase omne tallit punctum, and the like.

The same method was observed in the justiciary process at these comitia, and also in the confirmation of laws, except that, in both these cases, only two tablets were offered to every person, on one of which was written U. R., and on the other A. in capital letters; the two first standing for uti rogas, "be it as you desire," relating to the magistrate who proposed the question; and the last for antequo, or "I forbid it."

It is remarkable, that though in the election of magistrates, and in the ratification of laws, the votes of that century whose tablets were equally divided signified nothing; yet in the trials of life and death, if the tablets for and against were the same in number, the person was actually acquitted.

The division of people into tribes was an invention of Romulus after he had admitted the Sabines into Rome; and though he constituted at that time only three, yet as the state increased in power, and the city in number of inhabitants, they rose by degrees to thirty-five. For a long time after this institution, a tribe signified no more than a certain space of ground with its inhabitants. But at last the matter was quite altered, and a tribe was no longer pars urbis, but pars civitatis—not a quarter of the city, but a company of citizens living wherever they pleased. This change was chiefly occasioned by the original difference between the tribes in point of honour; for Romulus having committed all mechanic arts to the care of strangers, slaves, and libertines, and reserved the labour of agriculture to the freemen and citizens, who by this active course of life might be prepared for martial service, the tribus rusticæ were for this reason esteemed as more honourable than the tribus urbanae. And now all persons being desirous of getting into the more creditable division, and there being several ways of accomplishing their wishes, as by adoption, by the power of censors, or the like, that rustic tribe which had the most worthy names in its roll had the preference to all others, though of the same general denomination. Hence all of the same great family bringing themselves by degrees into the same tribe, gave the name of the family to the tribe which they honoured; whereas at first the generality of the tribes did not receive their names from persons but from places.

The first assembly of the tribes we meet with is about the year of Rome 263, which was convened by Sp. Sicinius, tribune of the commons, upon account of the trial of Coriolanus. Soon after the tribunes of the commons were ordered to be elected here, and at last all the inferior magistrates and the collegiate priests. The same comitia served for enacting laws relating to war and peace, and all others proposed by the tribunes and plebeian officers, though they had not properly the name of leges, but only that of plebiscita. They were generally convened by the tribunes of the commons; but the same privilege was allowed to all the chief magistrates. They were confined to no place; and therefore we sometimes find them held in the comitium, sometimes in the Campus Martius, and now and then in the capitol. The proceedings were in most respects conformable to those already described in the account of the other comitia, and therefore need not be insisted on. We may only observe further of the comitia in general, that when any candidate was found to have most tablets for a magistracy he was declared to be designed or elected by the president of the assembly, and they termed renunciari consul, praetor, or the like; and that the last sort of the comitia only could be held without the consent or approbation of the senate, which was necessary to the convening of the other two.