A Brief Overview of the Roman "Constitution" in the Republic

A Brief Overview of the Roman "Constitution" in the Republic

The 'Class-Based' Voting Assembly - The Comitia Centuriata

(end of the Second Punic War)

Group/Class	Number of Centuries	Property Qualification
Equites	18	possession of cavalry horse
Infantry Class 1	80	100,000+ asses
Infantry Class 2	20	?
Infantry Class 3	20	?
Infantry Class 4	20	?
Infantry Class 5	30	11-12,000 asses
Army Engineers	2	?
Musicians	2	?
Proletarii/Capite Censi	1	1500/>350 (ineligible for legions)
Total	193

NOTE: When this assembly voted by a simple majority of centuries (at first 97, later 92 after the total number of centuries was reduced to 183), it voted to elect the senior magistrates of the state--the Consuls and Praetors, holders of imperium--for each year. Please note that this voting assembly underwent a reform after the mid-third century BC by which the number of centuries in the first class were reduced to 70 (35 seniores and 35 iuniores = one group selected from each of the voting tribes of the popular assembly, the Comitia Tributa). The tribune Gaius Gracchus (123 and 122 BC) proposed to have the order of voting by the centuries determined by lot, in order to democratize (somewhat) this voting assembly, but his proposal apparently failed to become law.

How the Comitia Centuriata Worked

The Comitia Centuriata voted in single voting blocks called 'centuries' (centuriae). The membership of each citizen in one of these was determined by a property qualification. This was dependent on the amount of property each citizen owned and was determined by the censors who took a census (an 'evaluation') of all Roman citizens once every five years (the actual ceremonial being known as a lustrum). Originally the evaluation would have been expressed in terms of property (land, slaves, animals), but by the second century BC it was expressed in terms of a money value (first in asses; then after 141 BC in sestertii = HS). When the Comitia Centuriata voted, all the citizens allocated to each century voted in order to see how their century would cast its one vote. A simple majority of the total possible (at first 97 of 193 votes; after the mid-third century, 92 of 183) carried the day on any one issue. This voting assembly elected the senior magistrates of the Roman state to their one-year terms.

Men who were elected to the magistracies of the Roman state, beginning with the quaestorship (see below), began climbing a 'ladder' of offices which the Romans called the cursus honorum (the regular 'course' or 'track' of offices) which eventually had to be taken in a prescribed order from lowest (the quaestorship) to highest (the consulship). Originally, the censors in their revision of the lists of who was and was not in the Senate (the lectio Senatus), a process that was repeated once every five years, would appoint new senators from among these office-holders as well as from past tribunes of the plebs; after the Atinian plebiscite in the mid-second century, however, all ex-tribunes of the plebs were automatically enrolled in the senate. After Sulla, all men who were elected to the first magistracy (the quaestorship), also automatically entered into the Senate.

The Senate was a deliberative body of about 300 men who offered their advice (a Senatus consultum) to the magistrates. Although they were formally only pieces of 'advice,' these Senatus consulta had the effect of orders which the magistrates were normally bound to follow, and which they usually did obey.

The Comitia Centuriata also deliberated on policy matters, such as deciding on peace and war, though the voters technically could only respond by a 'yes' or 'no' decision to questions or measures put to them by the consuls who were the presiding officers of the assembly.

The Popular Voting Assembly - The Comitia Tributa Populi
(The 'Tribal' Assembly)

This assembly votes by bloc in 'Tribe' units (each 'tribe' gets to cast only one ballot), the order chosen by lot, rather than by wealth classes. A simple majority of 18 votes decided the matter. This assembly voted to elect the 10 tribunes of the plebs, the two plebeian aediles and the quaestors (for details, see below). All these magistrates held office for only one-year terms.

How the Comitia Tributa Populi Worked

The Tribal Assembly began in the late-fifth or early-fourth century with 25 'tribes' or voting units; 2 more were added in 358 BC; 2 were added in 333 BC; 2 were added in 317 BC; then more were added in pairs (to maintain an uneven number) in the first half of the third century, bringing the total, by 241 BC or c. 230 BC, to 35 tribes. All lower class persons in Rome, including freedmen or former slaves were grouped into the four 'urban tribes'. The Tribal Assembly included all Roman citizens by right. They had the vote not because of any property qualification, but simply because of the fact that they held Roman citizenship. In this assembly, however, the principle of block voting still held. All the citizens voted within their tribe in order to decide how the whole tribe would cast its one vote. A simple majority of 18 votes decided the matter. These tribes were not 'tribes' in any kinship sense; they were simply voting regions or districts to which you belonged from the time you acquired your citizenship (you did not change your 'tribe' when you moved; you were assigned a voting tribe for life).

This assembly voted to elect the tribunes of the plebs who represented the interests of the people (at first only by interposing their veto), and protected them (by their ius auxilii, or "right of assistance") from undue punishments at the hands of the other magistrates. The Tribunes of the Plebs were held to be inviolate and sacrosanct, a status made effective by virtue of the sacred oath sworn by all the plebs to kill anyone, including magistrates, who opposed or harmed one of their tribunes. At all times the tribunes of the plebs could call the Comitia Tributatogether and bring various types of business before it (*there is some evidence from the late Republic, from 59 BC onwards, that consuls may have infringed on this right). From the time of the Lex Hortensia (287BC) all laws (sing. lex, pl. leges) passed by this assembly were binding on all Roman citizens, whether they were rich or poor, senators or non-senators.

Content copyright July, 2001 by Prof. Brent D. Shaw and Eric Kondratieff.

Use without permission is prohibited.

Last modified 12 Jan. 2004, 9:30 a.m., EDT.