Note 770 — Chapter VII · THE CONTIO

Cic. Att. i. 14. 1; Lex Gen. 81, in CIL. ii. Supplb. 5439: “In contione palam luci nundinis.” Another illustration is the statement of Gellius, xv. 27. 3, that wills were made in comitia calata, in a contio of the people. Mommsen’s assumption (Röm. Staatsr. i. 199 and n. 3) that no contio was held on a market day as a rule, to which there were exceptions, is altogether unsatisfactory. The passages cited refer to a law, not to a mere custom to be observed or not at the will of the magistrate. The contio which met on a market day must have been essentially different in nature from the contio which was forbidden for market days; cf. also Varro, L. L. vi. 93; Cic. Rab. Perd. 4. 11.