Roman assemblies

The Roman Republic (Latin: Res Publica Romanorum) vested formal governmental powers in four separate people's assemblies — the Comitia Curiata, the Comitia Centuriata, the Comitia Tributa, and the Concilium Plebis. The Latin Comitia is sometimes rendered in English as Comices.

Centuriate Assembly

The Comitia Centuriata included both patricians and plebeians organized into five economic classes (knights and senators being the First Class) and distributed among internal divisions called Centuries. Membership in the Centuriate Assembly required certain economic status, and power was heavily vested in the First and Second Classes. The Centuriate Assembly met annually to elect the next year's consuls and praetors, and quintannually (every 5 years) to elect the censors. It also sat to try cases of high treason (perduellio), although this latter function fell into disuse after Lucius Appuleius Saturninus introduced a more workable format (maiestas).

Related Topics:
Patrician - Plebeian - Consul - Praetor - Censor - Lucius Appuleius Saturninus

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A citizen's vote did not count in the Centuriate Assembly. Rather, the individual's vote was counted within his Century and determined the outcome of the Century's vote. Because only the first eighteen (and richest) Centuries were kept to the nominal size of 100 members, members of those Centuries exerted a disproportionate influence over the outcome of votes. The Centuriate Assembly, originally a military assembly of knights, had to meet outside the pomerium of Rome on the Campus Martius, and was as a result extremely clumsy to convoke and manage. It was not normally used except to elect the next year's magistrates. The Centuriate Assembly is usually cited, with little contemporary evidence, as the classical precedent for the US Electoral College.

Related Topics:
Century - Pomerium - Rome - Campus Martius - US - Electoral College

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