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patriotism, in grasp of power and unwavering courage, the foremost political corporation of all times.”

The senate never elected or designated a building for its exclusive use, nor did it ever, for any long period, limit itself to one place of assemblage. Its migratory habit appears remarkable when considered in connection with the facts that its meetings were frequent and very important; that its three hundred members required considerable room; that its officers had charge of the archives of the government, and frequently needed convenient access to their records; that its proceedings were always secret; and that with its control of the public funds, it could, at any time, have provided a building suitable to its numerous and important wants. It assembled in different temples and halls, supplied with chairs or benches but not with desks.

The days for assemblage were fixed, not by a general rule, but by special order of the senate or by special call of a consul, announced either in the forum by a crier, or to the individual senators by messengers. The usual hour was sunrise.

SEC. 428. Consuls.-The chief political, military, and judicial power of the state was intrusted to two consuls, elected by the people in the autumn or winter for a term of one year. They were clothed with equal authority and each was authorized to annul any official act of his colleague, or of any subordinate official. Custom required that no person should be elected to the office until he had served with credit in at least ten campaigns; and as the voters were nearly all soldiers, many of whom had risked their comfort and their lives under command of the consular candidates, they usually gave the office to a man of well-known courage and capacity.

As the classification of citizens for the purpose of voting depended on the amount of their property, it became necessary that a complete assessment roll of all freemen should be made, and that it should be revised at brief intervals. The work was intrusted to a consul designated by lot. The consul was also the custodian of the treasury, taking care of the public funds in accordance with the orders of the senate. As supreme judge, the consul could sit in person, or could designate a person to hear the evidence and render judgment in accordance with instructions.

When acting in his official capacity, the consul was accompanied by his lictors, or bailiffs, who were the carriers of his messages and the executors of his orders. When out of the city they carried rods and axes, as symbols of his power to scourge and kill those who should resist his authority. Until 457 B. C. each consul appointed a quæstor to act as the custodian of the public funds under his care. After that year these officials of the treasury were elected by the people.

The Roman consuls were equal in authority. They shared with each other the presidency of the senate, the presidency of the assembly, the command of the army, and the supreme judicial office. Like the nominal kings of Sparta they were subject to the orders of the administrative council and of the popular assembly; but in their presence no motion could be submitted to the senate for vote or discussion, without their consent, nor at an election could any person receive a vote until he had received consular recognition as a suitable candidate.

It being impossible that two consuls should command the same army or preside in the same meeting at one time, the law provided that the power should be held for

alternating periods, which were one day in the field and one month in the city, arranged by lot, that is, if the two consuls were together. If there were two armies, the senate assigned a consul to each; and sometimes one consul remained in the city while the other was absent campaigning.

The exclusive right of introducing bills and resolutions, of submitting propositions for consideration and decision and of giving the privilege of speech to low class senators and to outsiders, gave to the consul an influence over the Roman senate greater than that held in any legislative body of modern times, by the presiding officer. Without consulting the senate or reporting to it, he appointed all the committees, directed their work, and accepted or rejected it at his pleasure. Besides he had authority to issue decrees, which, unless canceled by his colleague, or set aside by the senate, had the force of law until the end of his official term. He filled all the vacancies in the senate that occurred during his term; and after its close, he was entitled to the first vacant senatorship, for which he rarely had to wait more than a year or two.

The commanding consul had almost absolute power over his army in the field, and over the conquered enemy. He appointed all his subordinate military officers. He had complete control of the money furnished to pay the expenses of his army; and he could levy such contributions as he pleased on vanquished foes. He enforced discipline and distributed booty. He could conclude truces, and had general authority to make treaties valid until rejected by the senate.

The consuls could appoint a dictator, and the senate could confer dictatorial power on the consuls. The dictator or dictatorial consul possessed absolute and irre

sponsible power for a term, which could not exceed six months, nor extend beyond the close of the current conHe was above the trammels of the civil and

sular term. criminal law. After the close of his term he could not be called to account for any official act. When the tribuneship of the people had been established, with a sacred and inviolable character, it was powerless before the dictator.

SEC. 429. Centuries.-Under the system of a mixed aristocracy, the sovereign political authority previously exercised by the clan assembly (comitia curiata), controlled exclusively by the nobles, was transferred to the centuriate assembly (comitia centuriata), comprising all the adult inale citizens not more than sixty years of age. This centuriate assembly was timocratic in character, or, in other words, was under the control of men whose political power was based on their wealth. For the purposes of electing their consuls, and of voting on laws and on questions of war and peace, the citizens were distributed into groups, or centuries, so classified, according to their wealth and their age, that the votes of the rich and old should have much more weight in proportion to their number than those of the poor and young.

Of these timocratic groups there were one hundred and ninety-three, divided into six classes. The first class comprised all citizens, whether patricians or plebeians, worth 100,000 asses or pounds of copper, and this class contained eighty-two centuries. Those citizens worth between 75,000 and 100,000 asses filled twenty groups in the second class; the third class, of those worth between 50,000 and 75,000 asses, made up twenty groups; the. fourth class, of men worth between 25,000 and 50,000 asses, filled twenty groups; the fifth class, between 11,000

and 25,000 asses, were distributed into thirty groups; and all those citizens worth less than 11,000 asses were comprised in one group of the sixth class. Since there were one hundred and two centuries, and a majority of the whole number in the two highest classes, which probably did not include one-twentieth part of the citizens, it is evident that the poor were at a decided disadvantage.

There has been much discussion about the value of the Roman as, or copper pound, in the early years of the republic. Like the English pound and the French livre, the Roman as was repeatedly debased, but when that governmental fraud began in Rome we cannot now ascertain. Mommsen, who is not surpassed as an authority in Roman archæology, thinks that 100,000 asses were equal in value to $5,000 of our money, or to one thousand cows, in the beginning of the historical period.

Each class was divided into equal numbers of senior and junior groups. Thus in the twenty centuries of the second class there were ten of the elder and as many of the younger men. The seniors were those between fortyfive and sixty years; the juniors were those between seventeen and forty-five. Now, in consequence of the high mortality in the constant and arduous warfare of the republic, added to the deaths from natural causes, there were nearly three times as many junior as senior voters; but the seniors controlling as many groups, exercised, in relation to their number, three times as much influence as the juniors. Besides, the old men were relatively more numerous among the rich than among the poor classes; and, again, the richest classes had the privilege of voting first, and the others, under the influence of current superstition, which accepted the first vote as a sacred omen, usually took it for their guidę.

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