Note 481 — Chapter IV · THE CENTURIES AND THE CLASSES

If the senior centuries were formed in the way assumed by Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 261 (“Nicht selbständig gebildet worden, sondern daraus hervorgegangen, dass wer aus einer Centurie des ersten Aufgebots Alters halber ausschied, damit in die entsprechende Centurie des zweiten Aufgebots eintrat”), about a half generation must have been required to evolve them. An objection to his idea is that the military centuries as well as the legions were formed anew at each year’s levy (Polyb. vi. 20, 24), whereas the political centuries were made up by the censors (cf. Cic. Rep. ii. 22. 40: “In una centuria censebantur”), doubtless modified annually by the consuls. A military century and a political century accordingly could not have been composed of the same men.

The Tabulae Iuniorum contained the names of all juniors in honorable service in the field; Livy xxiv. 18. 7. Tabulae Seniorum are not mentioned. Classis Iuniorum (Fest. 246. 30) may apply to all eighty-five (or eighty-four) centuries of juniors, as Lange, Röm. Alt. i. 474, supposes, or to the first class; Tubero, Historiae, i, in Gell. x. 28. 1: “Scripsit Servium Tullium regem, populi Romani cum illas quinque classes iuniorum census faciendi gratia institueret.” It is doubtful whether there was a separate list of seniors.