THE ROMAN ASSEMBLIES
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK. BOSTON. CHICAGO
ATLANTA. SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., Limited
LONDON. BOMBAY. CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
THE
ROMAN ASSEMBLIES
FROM THEIR ORIGIN TO THE END
OF THE REPUBLIC
BY
GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
AUTHOR OF “THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION,”
“A HISTORY OF GREECE,” “A HISTORY OF ROME,”
“AN ANCIENT HISTORY,” ETC.
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1909
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1909,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1909.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
This volume is the first to offer in monographic form adetailed treatment of the popular assemblies of ancient Rome.Necessarily much of the material in it may be found in earlierworks; but recent progress in the field, involving a reactionagainst certain theories of Niebuhr and Mommsen affectingthe comitia, justifies a systematic presentation of existingknowledge of the subject. This task has required patient laborextending through many years. The known sources and practicallyall the modern authorities have been utilized. A determinationto keep free from conventional ideas, so as to lookat the sources freshly and with open mind, has brought viewsof the assemblies not found in other books. The reader isearnestly requested not to reject an interpretation because itseems new but to examine carefully the grounds on whichit is given. In general the aim has been to follow a conservativehistorical method as opposed to the radical juristic, to buildup generalizations on facts rather than to estimate sources bythe criterion of a preconceived theory. The primary objectof the volume, however, is not to defend a point of view butto s