Note 1607 — Chapter XII · THE COMITIA TRIBUTA AND THE RISE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY To the Year 449

Dion. Hal. vii. 17. 5: Δημάρχου γνώμην ἀγορεύοντος ἐν δήμῳ μηδεὶς λεγέτω μηδὲν ἐναντίον μηδὲ μεσολαβείτω τὸν λόγον. Ἐὰν δέ τις παρὰ ταῦτα ποιήσῃ, διδότω τοῖς δημάρχοις ἐγγυητὰς αἰτηθεὶς εἰς ἔκτισιν ἧς ἂν ἐπιθῶσιν αὐτῶ ζημίας. Ὁ δὲ μὴ διδοὺς ἐγγυητὴν θανάτῳ ζημιούσθω, καὶ τὰ χρήματ’ αὐτοῦ ἱερὰ ἔστω. Τῶν δ’ ἀμφισβητούντων πρὸς ταύτας τὰς ζημίας αἱ κρίσεις ἔστωσαν ἐπὶ τοῦ δήμου; cf. x. 32. 1; 42. 4. Although we may feel uncertain as to the author and the date of this plebiscite, we need not doubt its existence, especially as the principle it contains is derived from leges sacratae by Cicero (Sest. 37. 79; cf. Pliny, Ep. i. 23), and was often put into practice; Livy iii. 11. 8; xxv. 3 f.; Dion. Hal. x. 41 f.; Cic. Inv. ii. 17. 52; Val. Max. ix. 5. 2; (Aurel. Vict.) Vir. Ill. 65; cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. i. 260 n. 2; ii. 289, n. 1; Lange, Röm. Alt. i. 602 f.; ii. 567. For the state, however, it had no more validity than had the original lex sacrata, of which the so-called Icilian plebiscite was an expansion.