The assumption of a diminution in number having proved untenable, the conclusion is that there was an increase.[1302] In view of the facts (1) that the reformed organization rested on a tribal basis,[1303] (2) that the centuries were divisions not only of the tribes[1304] but also of the classes,[1305] (3) that the tribes could not have been divisions of the classes,[1306] it is necessary to conclude that the classes were themselves divisions of the tribes with the centuries as subdivisions. In other words, the work of organization took place within the tribe: the members of a tribe were first divided into five classes according to their wealth; within each class the men were grouped on the basis of age into juniors and seniors,[1307] one century for each within the several classes, making ten centuries of juniors to the tribe, or in all three hundred and fifty tribal centuries, to which are to be added eighteen centuries of knights and probably five supernumerary centuries, amounting to a total of three hundred and seventy-three. This is substantially the view of Pantagathus.[1308] Convincing evidence is afforded by a group of inscriptions of the imperial period.[1309] From them we learn that under the emperors the urban tribes comprised severally (1) a corpus seniorum, (2) a corpus iuniorum, (3) the tribus Sucusana a corpus Iulianum, and the Palatine and Esquiline each a corpus Augustale. Every corpus consisted of several centuries. In the corpus Sucusana iuniorum were eight centuries divided into two groups of five and three respectively, the first group being evidently superior to the second. At the head of the century was a centurio or curator.[1310] Eliminating the corpora which were named after emperors and which must have been instituted in their time, eliminating also the inferior centuries of the corpora seniorum and iuniorum, which were undoubtedly added either by the emperors or by the late republican censors, we have remaining five centuries to the corpus as it must have stood in the period immediately following the reform. This result confirms the view suggested by Pantagathus.
It was accepted by Mommsen in his Römische Tribus (1844) and in the first seven editions of his History of Rome; but in his Römisches Staatsrecht[1311] he has offered a radical modification: while holding to the 373 centuries, he maintains that they were so combined as to cast in all 193 votes. According to this theory the first class comprised 35 × 2 = 70 centuries, each with one vote, whereas the remaining classes together, made up of 4 × 35 × 2 = 280 centuries, cast but 100 votes. How the centuries were combined Mommsen does not presume to say. He considers it possible, however, that for instance sixty of the seventy centuries of the second class were grouped by threes and ten by twos, making twenty-five voting groups in all. Had he attempted to follow out in detail the practical working of the theory, he would hardly have offered it to the public. The votes could not have been determined by a majority of component centuries, for according to the theory some groups comprised but two. Or if the group voted by individuals without regard to the component centuries, the four lower classes were practically composed not of centuries but of larger, nameless voting divisions.
His main support is the account of the centuriate organization given in Cicero’s Republic,[1312] which speaks of a hundred and ninety-three centuries, and which Mommsen[1313] believes to be a description of the reformed organization. Cicero’s[1314] assumption that the essential facts were known to the friends of the younger Scipio—the leader in the dialogue—and the discrepancy in the number of centuries of the first class between the Servian system as given by the annalists (Livy and Dionysius) and the organization which Cicero describes[1315] are the chief points in Mommsen’s favor. Against his interpretation it may be urged (1) that the passage is exceedingly uncertain;[1316] (2) that Cicero makes Servius Tullius the author of the organization which he describes; (3) that though the reform affected the details of the comitial organization, the principle—a distribution of the people according to ordines, census, aetates—remained the same from the time of Servius to the time of Cicero, so that he could assume that it was known to the hearers of Scipio; (4) that as to the discrepancy in the number of centuries in the first class, on the assumption that the text is correct, (a) Cicero, who was by no means infallible, may have made a mistake,[1317] being in this case especially liable to error because in the reformed organization the first class comprised seventy centuries, or (b) in case Cicero is right, either (m) the annalists may be in error in assigning eighty centuries to the first class, or (n) in an early stage of transition from the old to the new organization the number of centuries in the first class may have been cut down to seventy with a corresponding increase of ten in some other part of the system; (5) that Mommsen’s theory is refuted by the language of Cicero,[1318] who speaks of the voting divisions of the four lower classes not as groups of centuries but simply as centuries, the absence of a name for such a group being one of the strongest arguments against its existence. Mommsen’s interpretation of the passage is in brief too strained and unnatural to commend itself to the understanding. Apart from its lack of support in the sources, an objection to the theory is its extreme impracticability. Holding that juniors and seniors could not have been brought together in the same voting divisions, and assuming that the combinations were made by twos and threes and that the four lower classes had an equal number of votes, Klebs has worked out the simplest arrangement as follows:
| Class | Centuries | Votes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | 70 | One vote each | 70 | |||
| II | 70 | 35 of seniors | ||||
| 8 | in groups of two | 4 | votes | |||
| 27 | in groups of three | 9 | votes | |||
| 13 | votes | |||||
| 35 of juniors | ||||||
| 2 | in a group | 1 | vote | |||
| 33 | in groups of three | 11 | votes | |||
| 12 | votes | |||||
| Total | 25 | |||||
| If the remaining classes are like the second, we shall have: | ||||||
| III | 70 | 25 | ||||
| IV | 70 | 25 | ||||
| V | 70 | 25 | ||||
| Equites | 18 | One vote each | 18 | |||
| Supernumeraries | 5 | One vote each | 5 | |||
| Total | 193 [1319] | |||||
This complex system would make the action of the centuriate assembly exceedingly slow and difficult, and would be as useless as impracticable; for if the object was to reduce the votes of the first class by ten and to make the other classes equal, that end could have been easily attained by the readjustment of numbers on the old basis, without the invention of this awkward grouping, the like of which is not known to have existed in any ancient or modern state. Such a reform, too, would bring out more clearly than ever the inequality of rights in the comitia,[1320] and therefore could not have been called democratic by Dionysius.[1321] It is contradicted also by Livy,[1322] who distinctly states that the number of centuries was changed. Lastly the objection must be made that the joining of centuries of different tribes into voting units cannot be reconciled with the imperial grouping of centuries of the same tribe into corpora,[1323] and is refuted by the many citations which assume the voting or the announcement of the votes to have proceeded according to tribes[1324] as well as according to classes.[1325]
Lange,[1326] not thinking it necessary to preserve a total of a hundred and ninety-three votes but accepting in the main the view of Pantagathus, tries to bring the centuries into relation with the tribes by assuming that the seventy half-tribes, severally comprising five centuries of juniors or seniors, were given each one vote in the “concluding announcement” (Schlussrenuntiation), this vote being determined by a majority of the five component centuries. In like manner the eighteen centuries of knights were grouped in divisions of three centuries each, so as to count six votes in the final announcement, hence the name sex suffragia. The supernumerary centuries were grouped in one or two voting divisions, so that in all seventy-seven or seventy-eight votes were cast.[1327] As to the process, he believed that after the prerogative the seventy centuries of the first class and the eighteen centuries of cavalry voted simultaneously, and while their votes were being counted the second class was voting, the votes, in his opinion, not being announced as soon as known.[1328] This view as to the announcement is contradicted by the sources,[1329] which clearly imply that the reports were made public as they came in. Against his theory may be urged also (1) the fact that no name existed for the half-tribe, which in his opinion cast one vote in the closing announcement,[1330] as well as (2) the fact that the sources give more than six votes to the equites in the late republic.[1331] Lange is right, however, in understanding that the voting did not now, as formerly, cease when a majority was reached, but continued till all the centuries had voted.[1332]
A solution of the problem as to the order of voting suggested by Klebs[1333] seems to satisfy all conditions. The centuries gave their votes by classes, each being announced as soon as it was ascertained. Then when all the centuries had voted, a count was taken by tribes in the order determined by lot;[1334] and a second announcement, made in that order, decided the election or other act of the people. Each candidate was declared elected when a majority of votes was reached in his favor.
Regarding the supernumerary centuries our information is extremely meagre. As it does not seem likely that influential corporations would be robbed of a privilege they once enjoyed, we may reasonably believe that the artisans, musicians, and accensi velati retained centuries of their own in the reformed organization. Cicero,[1335] however, speaks of a single century of artisans for his time. The two industrial colleges, which had existed from an early age,[1336] seem to have been joined in one and to have continued into the imperial period after nearly all the other guilds had been abolished.[1337] When the two were united, they were probably reduced to a single vote in the assembly. In like manner the liticines, or tubicines, and the cornicines were united in one college of musicians[1338] and were probably given one vote. The accensi velati, too, formed a college composed of wealthy freedmen, freeborn, and even knights.[1339] We may well suppose that it still possessed a vote in the centuriate assembly. Lastly may be mentioned the century of proletarians and that of the tardy,[1340] which were as necessary after the reform as before it.[1341] Although new centuries were added, possibly by the later republican censors and certainly by the emperors,[1342] the principle of the reformed organization remained unchanged.[1343]
In the reformed assembly the equestrian centuries ceased to be prerogative.[1344] A century was drawn from the first class[1345] by lot[1346] to take the lead in voting. Then came the remainder of the class, including the equestrian centuries and the single century of artisans, eighty-eight in all. In the announcement the votes of the equites were distinguished from those of the class;[1347] and the sex suffragia, no longer exclusively patrician,[1348] were reported after the other eighty-two. The inferior place assigned to the suffragia was evidently to remove them far from their earlier prerogative position so as to free the assembly from patrician influence. Next the lower classes, among which other supernumerary centuries were distributed as in the earlier republic, voted in order; and finally came the summing up by tribes in the way described above. The old military array gave place to a civilian grouping like that already established for the curiate and tribal assemblies.[1349]