Note 189 — Chapter II · THE SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF THE PRIMITIVE POPULUS

In the face of all evidence to the contrary two or three scholars persist in maintaining essentially the opinion of Niebuhr that through the republic the curiae continued patrician. Herzog, Röm. Staatsverf. i. 98 f., 108, 1014, n. 2, imagines that from the beginning the clients belonged to the curia in its administrative capacity, shared in its sacra, attended its meetings, but did not vote. The plebs, however, were not even passive members. His reasons do not deserve mention. Vassis, Ῥωμαών Πολιτεία ἡ βασιλευομένη κα ἡ ἐλευθέρα (Athens, 1903), also excludes the commons from the curiate assembly throughout its history. The fancies of Hoffmann, Patr. und pleb. Curien, need not detain us.