Note 1116 — Chapter IX · THE COMITIA CURIATA

The usual expression is “de suo imperio curiatam legem tulit,” or “populum consuluit;” Cic. Rep. ii. 13. 25; 17. 31; 18. 33; 20. 35; 21. 38; Livy ix. 38. 15. According to Cicero, Phil. v. 16. 45, the senate grants the imperium to Octavianus, a private citizen. The interrex, who could not have had a curiate law, nevertheless possessed imperium (Livy i. 17. 5 f.), and the absolute imperium was granted by a decree of the senate (Livy iii. 4. 9; Sall. Cat. 29; Hist. i. 77. 22). See also Cic. Leg. iii. 3. 9: “Imperia, potestates, legationes, quom senatus creverit populusve iusserit, ex urbe exeunto;” Leg. Agr. ii. 7. 17: “Omnes potestates, imperia, curationes ab universo populo proficisci convenit” (reference cannot here be to the curiate assembly, which in this connection Cicero does not recognize as the people). For the centuriate assembly, see Livy xxvi. 18. 9: “Omnes non centuriae modo sed etiam homines P. Scipioni imperium esse in Hispania iusserunt;” 22. 15: “Centuriam vero iuniorum seniores consulere voluisse, quibus imperium suffragio mandarunt.” For the tribal assembly, see T. Annius Luscus, Orat. adv. Ti. Gracch. in Fest. 314. 30: “Imperium quod plebes ... dederat.” It is a fact, too, that the tribal assembly had power to abrogate the imperium; Livy xxvii. 20. 11; 21. 1, 4; xxix. 19. 6; cf. p. 342, 360, 367. Also from Cic. Leg. Agr. ii. 11. 28 (“Vidit ... sine curiata lege decemviros potestatem habere non posse, quoniam per novem tribus essent constituti”) we must infer that had these decemvirs been elected in the regular way, by the thirty-five tribes, they would have had the potestas without a curiate law. The phrase nullis comitiis in 11. 29 (“Si hoc fieri potest, ut ... quisquam nullis comitiis imperium aut potestatem adsequi posset, etc.,”) implies that the imperium or potestas may be obtained in more than one form of comitia—either the centuriata or the tributa. In the same paragraph he asserts that on the principle followed by Servilius, whom he is assailing, any one could obtain the imperium or potestas without the vote of any comitia, for he does not consider the comitia curiata real comitia, seeing that they have degenerated into a mere form. From these passages it is clear that Cicero believed the imperium or potestas to be conferred by the centuries or tribes and merely confirmed by the curiae.