Concilium is comparatively rare in Cicero’s works. In a few cases he seems to make concilia include all kinds of organized national gatherings; cf. Rep. vi. 13 (3). 13: “Nihil est enim illi principi deo ... acceptius quam concilia coetusque hominum iure sociati, quae civitates appellantur (Nothing is more agreeable to the Supreme Being than assemblies and gatherings of men which are joined in societies by law and which are called states”); Fin. iii. 19. 63: “Natura sumus apti ad coetus, concilia, civitates.” In the first citation concilium must, and in the second it may, include all the citizens. Cicero could hardly mean that we are by nature adapted to assemblies of a part of the people, or that nothing could be more satisfactory to the Supreme Being than the concilium plebis which interdicted him from fire and water. In Fin. ii. 24. 77 (“To me those sentiments seem genuine which are honorable, praiseworthy, and creditable, which may be expressed in the senate, before the people, and in every gathering and concilium”) he could not be thinking simply of the plebeian assembly, for he placed far greater value on the opinions expressed in and by the comitia centuriata.[739]
From all that has been said it is evident that Cicero’s usage as well as Sallust’s does not differ from that of Livy. In fact no variation can be found in all the extant literature of the republic.[740] But it may be asked whether there was not a juristic tradition separate from the literary and preserving from early time the true distinction between the two words under discussion. A negative answer is compelled by the fact that history had its origin with jurisprudence in the pontifical college, that from the beginning historian and jurist were often united in the same person.[741] Hence the juristic usage was the same as the literary. It is thoroughly established, therefore, that in the late republic, as well as in the early empire, the distinction between comitia and concilium was not a distinction between the whole and a part; in fact, it becomes doubtful whether the definition of Laelius was known to the writers of this period.
The results thus far reached are of great importance; the definition of comitia and concilium formulated by Laelius has been set aside, and the ground prepared for the establishment of new definitions by induction. From the material afforded by the authors under discussion, the following conclusions relative to the general uses of the two words may be drawn:
I. (a) The phrases comitia curiata, comitia centuriata, comitia tributa constantly occur; whereas (b) the phrases concilium curiatum (or -tim), concilium centuriatum (or -tim), concilium tributum (or -tim) cannot be found.
(a) The former is too well known to need illustration; (b) the latter may be sufficiently established by an examination of the references for concilium given in this chapter.
II. (a) Concilium may apply to a non-political as well as to a political gathering; (b) comitia is wholly restricted to the political sphere.
(a) Concilium is non-political in Cicero, Div. i. 24. 49 (deorum concilium); Tusc. iv. 32. 69; N. D. i. 8. 18; Off. iii. 5. 25; 9. 38: Senec. 23. 84; Fin. ii. 4. 12 (virtutum concilium); Rep. i. 17. 28 (doctissimorum hominum in concilio); Sest. 14. 32 (applied to the meeting of a collegium); Livy i. 21. 3 (Camenarum concilia); ii. 38. 4; xxvii. 35. 4.[742]
III. Within the political sphere, again, (a) concilium is the more general term,—it suggests neither organization nor lack of organization; whereas (b) comitia is restricted to the organized assembly.
(a) Concilium is the more general term in Cicero, Fin. iii. 19. 63; ii. 24. 77; Rep. vi. 13 (3). 13.[743] In all these citations concilia, denoting assemblies of the whole people, must certainly include organized meetings, without excluding the unorganized. In Leg. iii. 19. 42 (“Invito eo qui cum populo ageret, seditionem non posse fieri, quippe cui liceat concilium, simul atque intercessum turbarique coeptum sit, dimittere”) concilium is probably the organized assembly. On the other hand, the concilium of all the people mentioned by Livy, i. 8. 1, may have been unorganized.