Note 1092 — Chapter IX · THE COMITIA CURIATA

The formula for the curiate law is unknown. Lange, Röm. Alt. i. 307 ff. 407 f., 459, 461 f., supposes that it not only pledged the people to obedience, but also defined the imperium and bound the king not to exceed the limitations imposed; that every constitutional modification of the imperium required a corresponding modification of the curiate act. Herzog, Röm. Staatsverf. i. 111 f., further assumes that the law contained the formula of treaty on which in his opinion the state rested, and that before the age of written documents this treaty was handed down orally through the repetition of the law. Lange’s theory, which runs throughout his great work, seems to rest on the single statement of Tacitus, Ann. xi. 22: “Quaestores regibus etiam tum imperantibus instituti sunt, quod lex curiata ostendit a L. Bruto repetita.” But this statement proves only that the quaestors were mentioned in the curiate law, and this circumstance is otherwise explained below, p. 189. That the law defined and limited the imperium is unlikely (1) because in early time, when the act had a real meaning, precise definitions were unknown; (2) because there is no evidence for it.

P. Servilius Rullus stated, evidently in his rogation, that the object of the curiate act to be passed for the decemviri provided for in his bill was “ut ii decemviratum habeant, quos plebs designaverit” (Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 10. 26)—a formula probably copied from earlier laws. From this statement and from evidence furnished below (p. 185 f.) it is practically certain that the formula for the curiate act ran somewhat like that for an election.