Those who belonged to the first class were termed classici, by way of pre-eminence—hence auctores classici, respectable or standard authors; those of the last class, who had no fortune, were called capite censi, or proletarii; and those belonging to the middle classes were all said to be infra classem—below the class.
Comitia centuriata were the most important of all the assemblies of the people. In these, laws were enacted, magistrates elected, and criminals tried. Their meeting was in the Campus Martius.
It was necessary that these assemblies should have been summoned seventeen days previously to their meeting, in order that the people might have time to reflect on the business which was to be transacted.
Candidates for any public office, who were to be elected here, were obliged to give in their names before the comitia were summoned. Those who did so, were said to petere consulatum vel præturam, &c.; and they wore a white robe called toga candida, to denote the purity of their motives; on which account they were called candidati.
Candidates went about to solicit votes (ambire,) accompanied by a nomenclator, whose duty it was to whisper the names of those whose votes they desired; for it was supposed to be an insult not to know the name of a Roman citizen.
Centuria prærogativa was that century which obtained by ballot the privilege of voting first.
When the centuria prærogativa had been elected, the presiding magistrate sitting in a tent (tabernaculum,) called upon it to come and vote. All that century then immediately separated themselves from the rest, and entered into that place of the Campus Martius, called septa or ovilia. Going into this, they had to cross over a little bridge (pons;) hence the phrase de ponte dejici—to be deprived of the elective franchise.
At the farther end of the septa stood officers, called diribitores, who handed waxen tablets to the voters, with the names of the candidates written upon them. The voter then putting a mark (punctus) on the name of him for whom he voted, threw the tablet into a large chest; and when all were done, the votes were counted.
If the votes of a century for different magistrates, or respecting any law, were equal when counted, the vote of the entire century was not reckoned among the votes of the other centuries; but in trials of life and death, if the tablets pro and con were equal, the criminal was acquitted.
The candidate for whom the greatest number of centuries voted, was duly elected, (renunciatus est:) when the votes were unanimous, he was said ferre omne punctum—to be completely successful.