Note 499 — Chapter IV · THE CENTURIES AND THE CLASSES

P. 66 f.; cf. Fest. 249. 1: “In descriptione classium quam fecit Ser. Tullius.” The attempt of Smith, Röm. Timokr., especially 140 ff., to prove that the five classes were introduced by the censors of 179 has nothing in its favor. It rests upon Livy xl. 51. 9: “Mutarunt suffragia, regionatimque generibus hominum causisque et quaestibus tribus descripserunt.” This passage makes no reference to the classes. In “generibus hominum” are included chiefly the “genus ingenuum” and the “genus libertinum.” “Causis” applies to those conditions of the libertini, such as the possession of children of a definite age, which might serve as a ground for enrolment in a rural tribe; and “quaestibus” refers to the distinction between landowners and the “opifices et sellularii” of the city. “They changed the arrangement for voting, and drew up the tribal lists on a local basis according to the social orders, the conditions, and the callings of men;” cf. Lange, Röm. Alt. ii. 265 f.; p. 354 f. below. Among the many objections to Smith’s theory these two may be mentioned: if the classes were introduced at this late historical time, (1) they would not have been ascribed to Servius Tullius; (2) they would have been adapted to the economic conditions of the second century B.C., whereas in 179 they were largely outgrown by the depreciation of the standard of value, the increase in the cost of living, and the growth of enormous estates. The Römische Timokratie is ably written, but its main thesis—the institution of the classes in the second century B.C.—remains unproved.