A comitia was an assembly summoned to make a decision, about whom should be elected, whether a law should be passed, war and peace, or guilt. Most commonly during the republic, comitia were used for electoral purposes and the word comitia in Latin was used a metonymy for them. This contrasted with contiones (sg. contio) where nothing was enacted.4
The word concilium (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 of concilium was rare in Latin – reference to an assembly of the tribes under the presidency of plebeian tribunes only as a concilium plebis is a modern convention6 – and there are instances where such an assembly was referred to as comitia tributa.7 Similarly, there are instances where concilium was used to refer to non-voting assemblies such as contiones.8
This section is an excerpt from Curiate assembly.[edit]
The curiate assembly (Latin: comitia curiata) was one of the assemblies of the Roman Republic and the oldest assembly at Rome. It was organised on the basis of curiae 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
This section is an excerpt from Centuriate assembly.[edit]
The centuriate assembly (Latin: comitia centuriata) was a popular assembly of ancient Rome. In the Roman Republic, its main function was electing the consuls, praetors, and censors. It was made up of 193 centuries (Latin: centuriae) which were apportioned to Roman citizens by wealth and age, hugely overweighting the old and wealthy.
The assembly, according to the ancient sources, dates to the regal period and initially closely resembled the Roman 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 the comitia 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.
This section is an excerpt from Tribal assembly.[edit]
The tribal assembly (Latin: comitia tributa) was one of the popular assemblies of ancient 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 and quaestors especially.
It organised citizens, by the middle republic, into thirty-five artificial 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.
This section is an excerpt from Plebeian council.[edit]
The plebeian council (Latin: concilium plebis) was one of the popular assemblies of ancient Rome. In the standard conception of the classical republican constitution, it was essentially identical to the tribal assembly except that patricians were excluded and it was presided over mainly by plebeian tribunes. The main legislative assembly in the republic, it also elected the plebeian magistrates (tribunes and aediles) 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 a concilium plebis. This was, however, not necessarily the case. Ancient Romans did refer to such assemblies also as comitia tributa,14 suggesting that the common distinction between comitia and concilium as meetings of the whole and a part of the people respectively may be erroneous modern constructions.15
This section is an excerpt from Contio.[edit]
The contio (pl. "contiones"; from Latin "conventio" meaning "gathering") was an ad hoc public assembly in Ancient Rome, which existed during the monarchy as well as in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire.17 At the contio, magistrates informed the Roman citizens on various topics related to politics. The main difference between the contio and other public assemblies in Rome, such as the comitia, is that the citizens who attended contiones were there to hear speeches and not to vote. The contio merely served a communicative function, offering magistrates the opportunity to give the people a report of what had been decided during a senate 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.18
Lintott 1999, pp. 42–43, noting that "[Concilium] might on occasion refer to assemblies of the whole people" and that it was used for emphasis on who was voting (eg plebs) rather than how (eg by tribes). - Lintott, Andrew (1999). Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926108-6. ↩
Lintott 1999, p. 40. - Lintott, Andrew (1999). Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926108-6. ↩
Lintott 1999, pp. 40–41, 43–49. - Lintott, Andrew (1999). Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926108-6. ↩
Lintott 1999, p. 42. - Lintott, Andrew (1999). Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926108-6. ↩
Lintott 1999, p. 43, citing Livy, 1.26.5, 1.36.6, 2.7.7, 3.71.3, and 6.20.11. - Lintott, Andrew (1999). Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926108-6. ↩
Lintott 1999, p. 53. "Since Mommsen's time, most modern scholars have used [comitia tributa] exclusively for a meeting by tribes of the whole [people] while reserving the term concilium plebis for meetings of the plebeians. This orthodoxy has come under attack.". - Lintott, Andrew (1999). Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926108-6. ↩
Lintott 1999, p. 53 n. 62, citing Livy, 2.56.2. - Lintott, Andrew (1999). Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926108-6. ↩
Forsythe 2005, p. 180. - Forsythe, Gary (2005). A Critical History of Early Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-94029-1. OCLC 70728478. https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/70728478 ↩
Mouritsen 2017, p. 26. "In the late republic the comitia curiata had very limited functions, and its original responsibilities are largely a matter of speculation". - Mouritsen, Henrik (2017). Politics in the Roman Republic. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-03188-3. LCCN 2016047823. https://lccn.loc.gov/2016047823 ↩
Lintott 1999, p. 49, noting the curiate assembly "existed only in a symbolic and ritualised form". - Lintott, Andrew (1999). Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926108-6. ↩
Vervaet 2015, pp. 215–16. - Vervaet, Frederik Juliaan (2015). "The "lex curiata" and the patrician auspices". Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz. 26: 201–224. ISSN 1016-9008. JSTOR 44945732. https://www.persee.fr/doc/ccgg_1016-9008_2015_num_26_1_1848 ↩
Lintott 1999, p. 49. - Lintott, Andrew (1999). Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926108-6. ↩
Lomas 2018, p. 189. - Lomas, Kathryn (2018). The Rise of Rome. History of the Ancient World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674919938. ISBN 978-0-674-65965-0. S2CID 239349186. https://doi.org/10.4159%2F9780674919938 ↩
Lintott 1999, p. 53 n. 62, citing: Livy, 2.56.2; Farrell, J, "The distinction between comitia and concilium", Athenaeum, 64: 407–38. - Lintott, Andrew (1999). Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926108-6. ↩
Forsythe 2005, p. 180. "It must also be stressed that the supposed technical terms, comitia populi tributa and concilium plebis tributum, are artificial modern constructions and have no authority in ancient texts". - Forsythe, Gary (2005). A Critical History of Early Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-94029-1. OCLC 70728478. https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/70728478 ↩
Cornell 1995, pp. 260–61. - Cornell, Tim (1995). The Beginnings of Rome. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-01596-0. OCLC 31515793. https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/31515793 ↩
Pina Polo 1995, pp. 205–6, 211–12. - Pina Polo, Francisco (1 December 1995). "Procedures and functions of civil and military contiones in Rome". Klio. 77 (1): 203–216. doi:10.1524/klio.1995.77.jg.203. ISSN 2192-7669. https://doi.org/10.1524%2Fklio.1995.77.jg.203 ↩
van der Blom 2016, p. 34. - van der Blom, Henriette (2016). Oratory and Political Career in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9781107280281. ISBN 978-1-107-05193-5. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/oratory-and-political-career-in-the-late-roman-republic/0FF23CFD58211BCB8085B9F75664CD72 ↩
Tan 2008, pp. 163–66. - Tan, James (2008). "Contiones in the age of Cicero". Classical Antiquity. 27 (1): 163–201. doi:10.1525/ca.2008.27.1.163. ISSN 0278-6656. https://online.ucpress.edu/ca/article/27/1/163/92783/Contiones-in-the-Age-of-Cicero ↩