" At Rome, as in Greece, the people do
not appoint deputies, they pass on the business itself. Even after
more than 500,000 men scattered over all Italy were admitted into the
citizenship, the citizens had to go in person to Rome to exercise
their rights. The people, therefore, meet at but one place; the
assembly is called the Comitia.
A magistrate convokes the people and presides over the body. Sometimes
the people are convoked by the blast of the trumpet and come to the
parade-ground (the Campus Martius), ranging themselves by companies
under their standards. This is the Comitia by centuries. Sometimes
they assemble in the market-place (the forum) and separate themselves
into thirty-five groups, called tribes. Each tribe in turn enters an
enclosed space where it does its voting. This is the Comitia by
tribes. The magistrate who convokes the assembly indicates the
business on which the suffrages are to be taken, and when the assembly
has voted, it dissolves. The people are sovereign, but accustomed to
obey their chiefs.
=The Magistrates.=--Every year the people elect officials to govern
them and to them they delegate absolute power.
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