[118] Liv. i. 32.
[119] Gell. i. 12, 14; x. 24, 3.
[120] Mommsen (Staatsr. iii. 3, n. 2) connects the word with populari. The magister populi (i.e. the dictator) is master of the infantry host.
[121] Varro ap. Dionys. ii 48. Other views derived it from the Sabine town Cures (Varro L.L. v. 51; Strabo v. 3, 1) or connected it with Curia (Lange Röm. Alt. i. p. 89; Belot Hist. d. Chev. Rom. i. p. 312).
[122] Suet. Jul. 70.
[123] Capito ap. Gell. i. 20 “Plebes ... in qua gentes civium patriciae non insunt: plebiscitum ... est ... lex, quam plebes, non populus, accipit.” Cf. Festus p. 233.
[124] According to the primitive conception private are dependent on public rights; see p. 31. But the growth of the Plebs, and alliances with other states, had effected many modifications in this conception.
[125] Nonius, s.v. plebitas, p. 101 “Hemina in annalibus, ‘Quicumque propter plebitatem agro publico ejecti sunt.’” Cf. Liv. iv. 48.
[126] p. 17.
[127] Cic. de Leg. ii. 13, 32 (on the question whether auspices were merely directed to the utilitas of the state, or formed a true method of divination) “si enim deos esse concedimus ... et eosdem hominum consulere generi, et posse nobis signa rerum futurarum ostendere; non video cur esse divinationem negem.”