Note 1622 — Chapter XII · THE COMITIA TRIBUTA AND THE RISE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY To the Year 449

P. 241; cf. also Herzog, Röm. Staatsverf. i. 157. A far different view as to the form of assembly which received appeals in tribunician capital cases is represented by Cicero, in whose opinion the comitia centuriata were established as the sole power to judge concerning the caput of a citizen even in pre-decemviral time by the leges sacratae (Sest. 30. 65); and accordingly he believes that the sentence of exile was passed on Kaeso Quinctius by that body (Dom. 32. 86). But in this opinion Cicero’s personal bias already referred to (p. 267, n. 6) cannot be neglected: in discrediting the decree of exile passed against himself by the tribal comitia, it was agreeable to his purpose to deny that this assembly ever had enjoyed such competence. The view given in the text, represented by the annalists and confirmed by a law of the Twelve Tables, is obviously preferable.