Note 1591 — Chapter XII · THE COMITIA TRIBUTA AND THE RISE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY To the Year 449
Reading edition
In this respect the plebeian body was analogous to a corporation; Gaius, in Dig. xlvii. 22. 4 (quoting a law of the Twelve Tables). But it was not a private association. It could neither limit its membership nor change its organization. Proof of these two facts is that the change of organization from curiate to tribal and the consequent exclusion of the landless resulted from a centuriate law; p. 271. Notwithstanding the fact that its resolutions lacked the force of law, the close relation existing between it and the state gave it from the beginning a prominent place in the constitution.