Note 47 — Chapter I · THE POPULUS AND ITS EARLIEST POLITICAL DIVISIONS

Aristotle, Politics, 1329, b 8, considers Italus, king of the Oenotrians, to have been author of the mess-associations (συσσίτια), adding that the institution was derived from the country of the Opici and the Chaonians. With the Opici he includes Latins as well as Ausonians; Dion. Hal. i. 72. 3. On the relation of these peoples to one another, see especially Pais, Anc. Italy, ch. i. Greek writers identify the curia with the phratry (Dion. Hal. ii. 7. 3 f.; Dio Cass. Frag. 4. 8), the ἑταιρεία, and the syssition (Dion. Hal. ii. 23. 3; Dio Cass. ibid.). Although the institutions designated by these four names show considerable variety of form and function, they are similar in general character and may have a common origin; Meyer, Gesch. d. Alt. ii. 514.

The myth which names the curiae after the Sabine women suggests that some of the curial names, and perhaps the curiae themselves, might be found among the Sabines. On Rapta and Titia however see p. 11, n. 7.