The Roman assemblies from their origin to the end of the Republic

by George Willis Botsford

[768] Att. iv. 3. 4: “Contio biduo nulla.”

[769] Cf. Pliny, N. H. xviii. 3. 13: “Nundinis urbem revisitabant et ideo comitia nundinis habere non licebat, ne plebs avocaretur;” Fest. 173. 30-3.

[770] Cic. Att. i. 14. 1; Lex Gen. 81, in CIL. ii. Supplb. 5439: “In contione palam luci nundinis.” Another illustration is the statement of Gellius, xv. 27. 3, that wills were made in comitia calata, in a contio of the people. Mommsen’s assumption (Röm. Staatsr. i. 199 and n. 3) that no contio was held on a market day as a rule, to which there were exceptions, is altogether unsatisfactory. The passages cited refer to a law, not to a mere custom to be observed or not at the will of the magistrate. The contio which met on a market day must have been essentially different in nature from the contio which was forbidden for market days; cf. also Varro, L. L. vi. 93; Cic. Rab. Perd. 4. 11.

[771] The calata comitia curiata is termed contio by Gell. xv. 27. 3: “Quod calatis comitiis in populi contione fieret.” Cicero, Rab. Perd. 4. 11 (cf. 5. 15) speaks of the witnessing comitia centuriata as contio, and the lustral centuriate assembly was similarly termed; Censoriae Tabulae, in Varro, L. L. vi. 87: “Conventionem habet qui lustrum conditurus est.” A widespread idea (held by Karlowa, Röm. Rechtsgesch. i. 379; Liebenam, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl. iv. 1149; Soltau, Altröm. Volksversamml. 37, and others) that all contiones were unorganized is therefore wrong.

[772] Fest. ep. 38.

[773] Cic. Vatin. i. 3; Att. xiv. 11. 1; 20. 3; xv. 2. 3; Fam. ix. 14. 7; x. 33. 2; Livy xxiv. 22. 1; Gell. xviii. 7. 6 f.; Gloss. Corp. Lat. ii. 114. 25; 269. 27; 575. 8.

[774] P. 150.

[775] Examples of military contiones are Caes. B. G. v. 48; vii. 52 f.; Livy i. 16. 1; ii. 59. 4 ff.; vii. 36. 9; viii. 7. 14; 31 f.; xxvi. 48. 13; xxx. 17. 9; xli. 10. 6; see also p. 202 f.

[776] Dion. Hal. iv. 37; v. 11. 2; Plut. Popl. 3; the candidate, too, for the regal office; Livy i. 35. 2.

[777] Cic. Leg. iii. 4. 10: “Cum populo ... agendi ius esto consuli, praetori, magistro populi equitumque eique, quem patres prodent consulum rogandorum ergo; tribunisque, quos sibi plebes creassit ... ad plebem, quod oesus erit, ferunto;” Varro, L. L. vi. 93: “Censor, consul, dictator, interrex potest (exercitum urbanum vocare).”