[968] Kovalevsky, Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russia, 122, 124.
[969] We must except the purely sacerdotal meetings of the curiae described in the preceding chapter.
[970] Tac. Germ. 11. 2; cf. Schröder, Deutsche Rechtsgesch. 22 f.
[971] Rhetra of Lycurgus, in Plut. Lyc. 6; cf. Gilbert, Altspart. Gesch. 131 f.
[972] Arist. Ath. Pol. 43. 4; cf. Gilbert, Const. Antiq. of Sparta and Athens, 285.
[973] This is true of the religious-judicial assemblies of the continental Celts (Caesar, B. G. vi. 13), which may also have exercised political functions, and of the Irish assemblies; Ginnell, Brehon Laws, 44, 51, 54; cf. Schrader, Reallexikon, 924.
[974] The Celtic magistrates disclosed to the people those matters only which they determined to be expedient; and it was unlawful to speak on public affairs outside the assembly; Caesar, B. G. vi. 20. The German chiefs in council preconsidered every subject to be presented to the assembly; Tac. Germ. 11. 1; Schröder, ibid. 23. The prominence of the nobles in the Slavic assembly (Kovalevsky, ibid. 123 ff.) would lead to the same conclusion regarding them. For the Homeric age of Greece the meeting of the council previous to the assembly as described by Il. ii. 50 ff. is typical, although we could not expect the poet in every case to repeat the procedure with uniform minuteness. The preconsidering power of the Roman senate was of the same nature.
[975] Il. ii. 278 ff.
[976] Tac. Germ. 11. 4. As a rule the North American Indians enjoy the same freedom of speech in their councils; Farrand, Basis of American History, 160, 211.
[977] Il. ii. 211 ff.; xii. 212 f. Calchas the seer, a man of the people, gained the protection of Achilles before daring to speak against Agamemnon; Il. i. 76 ff.