Note 1295 — Chapter X · THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COMITIA CENTURIATA

Niebuhr, ibid. His authorities for the two classes are Livy xliii. 16. 14: “Cum ex duodecim centuriis equitum octo censorem condemnassent multaeque aliae primae classis”; Cic. Phil. ii. 33. 82: “Prima classis vocatur, renuntiatur; deinde, ita ut adsolet, suffragia; tum secunda classis vocatur; quae omnia sunt citius facta, quam dixi. Confecto negotio bonus augur ... alio die inquit”; cf. p. 113. In the Livian citation, however, the mention of only the first class affords no hint as to the number of classes to follow; and the keen analysis of the Ciceronian passage made by Huschke, Verf. des Serv. 615 and n. 8, proves confecto negotio to signify not necessarily that the voting had been finished, but rather that the comitia had advanced so far as to preclude the obnuntiatio. It should be served before the assembly convened, not after the meeting began (“Non comitiis habitis, sed priusquam habeantur”; § 81). Confecto negotio, equivalent to comitiis habitis, is the negative of priusquam habeantur. This interpretation deprives the theory of two classes, held by Niebuhr, Ullrich, and others, of its only support.