Note 350 — Chapter III · THE THIRTY-FIVE TRIBES

The army in the field must have consisted largely of men in patris aut avi potestate, whose names were reported to the censors, not for taxation but for military service, by those who had authority over them; cf. Livy xxiv. 11. 7; xliii. 14; Dion. Hal. ix. 36. 3; Fest. ep. 66. Scipio’s complaint (Gell. v. 19. 16: “In alia tribu patrem, in alia filium suffragium ferre”) indicates that the sons were regularly enrolled in the tribe of the father. That the list comprised plebeians only (Niebuhr, Röm. Gesch. i. 457 f.) has proved untenable; Mommsen, Röm. Forsch. i. 153 f.