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The committees were the popular assemblies of ancient Rome, summoned and presided over by a magistrate. In the comitia , the Roman people appeared divided into political sections to decide, in exercise of their sovereign rights, on the issues proposed by the presiding magistrate.
It is necessary to distinguish the committees of the contiones . A magistrate was also charged with convening and presiding over the contions , but they did not meet in their divisions, and they had nothing to do other than receive the magistrate’s communications.
In all their assemblies in Rome, the people remained standing. The original meeting place was the comitium , a part of the forum. There were three types of committee : the curiata committee , the centuriata committee and the tax committee .
The curiata committee
The comitia curiata was the assembly of the patricians in their thirty curiae, which, until the change of constitution under Servius Tullius, constituted the entire populus romanus ; that is, they were the only full Roman citizens. During the monarchical period, they were summoned by the rex or interrex , who subjected them to questions so that they decided with “yes” or “no”. Voting was carried out first in each curia by the chiefs, then according to the curia, in an order determined by lot.
Regarding the powers and functions of the curiata committee , it should be noted that in the early days no committee had the right to initiate a measure, introduce amendments or discuss the merits and demerits of any matter that was presented to it.
All they could do was accept or reject whatever measure was presented to them. For this reason, all the proposals were only rogative ( populus rogatur ) and the citizens adopted them by means of the formula uti rogas (approved) or rejected by means of the formula antiquo . What was thus decreed became law for the king, the senate and the people.
The main points on which the populus had to decide were:
- The choice of magistrates, including the king himself.
- The approval of laws, peace and war.
- Capital punishment of Roman citizens.
- Certain affairs of the curias and people.
The Serbian constitution transferred the right to declare aggressive warfare and to decide on resources to the centuriata comitia , which from then on came to represent the citizenry, now made up of patricians and plebeians.
The establishment of the Republic
After the establishment of the Republic, the comitia curata retained the following rights:
- Confer, at the proposal of the Senate, the imperium (dominion) to the magistrates chosen by the centuriata comitia , as well as to the dictator chosen by the consuls.
- Confirm, also at the proposal of the Senate, the amendments to the constitution decided by the centuriata and tribute committees .
The extinction of the political difference between patricians and plebeians diminished the political position of the comitia curiata , and barely the mere shadow of its rights survived. The assembly itself became unreal, to the point that finally the presence of thirty curiati lictors and three augurs was enough to pass legal resolutions.
The curiata committee retained the powers relating to the reception of a non-patrician in the patrician order, as well as those relating to the arrogatio procedure , especially in cases in which it was a question of the passage of a patrician to a plebeian family.
the calata committee
The evidence of the exercise of the functions of the curiata committee , for its part, is later, specifically from the imperial era. The comitia calata was also an assembly of patrician curioe . They were called like that because they were called publicly ( calare ).
The pontiffs presided and the functions of the assembly were:
- Inaugurate the flamines, the rex sacrorum , and even the king himself during the monarchical period.
- The detestatio sacrorum , prior to an act of arrogatio . It is the formal liberation of a person from the gods of her family to be adopted by another with different deities.
- The ratification of wills twice a year; but this only applied to an early period.
- The announcement of the festival calendar on the first day of each month.
other assemblies
In ancient Rome there were also the comitia centuriata and the comitia tribute.
The centuriata committee was the assembly in which patricians and plebeians met. This assembly was also instituted by decree of King Servius Tullius. With the passage of time, Servius made a local division of the entire Roman territory into thirty tribes, which met in assemblies called comitia tributa. This assembly, in time, became the national assembly.
Sources
- Bravo, G. (1998). History of ancient Rome .
- Gilmart, D. (2010) . The Roman Assemblies . Digital history .
