Note 947 — Chapter VIII · THE CALATA COMITIA

This double act is most clearly stated by Livy iv. 4. 7: “Nobilitatem istam vestram ... non genere nec sanguine sed per coöptationem in patres habetis ... post reges exactos iussu populi”; p. 17, n. 5; cf. Dion. Hal. v. 40. 5: Ἡ βουλὴ καὶ ὁ δῆμος εἴς τε τοὺς πατρικίους αὐτὸν (Appius Claudius) ἐνέγραψε. This passage shows that Dionysius regards the process as an act of the people and of the senate, though he does not speak of the latter as coöptation. In the case of Appius Claudius Livy, ii. 16. 5, says simply that he was enrolled among the patres (“inter patres lectus”), and in like manner Suetonius, Tib. i, states that the patrician gens Claudia was coöpted into the class of patrician gentes.