Note 763 — Chapter VI · COMITIA AND CONCILIUM

Thus is explained a phenomenon for which Mommsen could find no adequate reason—that the so-called “patricio-plebeian” tribal assembly was more apt to be called concilium than were the comitia centuriata. The deliberative feature of the concilium also explains the close approach of the word to contio—another fact which Mommsen knew but did not understand.