Citizens' assemblies of the Roman Empire

The legislative assemblies of the Roman Empire were political institutions in the ancient

senate. The neutering of the assemblies had become inevitable for reasons beyond the fact that they were composed of the rabble of Rome. The electors were, in general, ignorant as to the merits of the important questions that were laid before them,^[1]

and often willing to sell their votes to the highest bidder.

Curiate, century and tribal assemblies

It was Rome's own success that caused the ultimate obsolescence of the assemblies. Under the

tribes, but by this point, these divisions had lost most of their relevance.^[2]

After the fall of the republic, the "

lictors, it only retained the power to witness wills and to ratify adoptions.^[2]

Under the empire, soldiers continued to organize by centuries, but the centuries had long lost all of their political relevance. The division of the "

Centuriate Assembly" into centuries of senior soldiers and junior soldiers continued well into the empire,^[2] as did their classification on the basis of property ownership. While the machinery of the Centuriate Assembly continued to exist well into the life of the empire,^[2] the assembly lost all of its practical relevance. Under the empire, all gatherings of the Centuriate Assembly were in the form of an unsorted convention. Legislation was never submitted to the imperial Centuriate Assembly, and the one major legislative power that this assembly had held under the republic, the right to declare war, was now held exclusively by the emperor.^[2] All judicial powers that had been held by the republican Centuriate Assembly were transferred to independent jury courts, and under the emperor Tiberius, all of its former electoral powers were transferred to the senate.^[2] After it had lost all of these powers, it had no remaining authority. Its only remaining function was, after the senate had 'elected' the magistrates, to hear the renuntiatio,^[2]

The renuntiatio had no legal purpose, but instead was a ceremony in which the results of the election were read to the electors. This allowed the emperor to claim that the magistrates had been "elected" by a sovereign people.

After the founding of the empire, the tribal divisions of citizens and freedmen continued, but the only political purpose of the tribal divisions was such that they better enabled the senate to maintain a list of citizens.

Plebeian Council" also survived the fall of the republic,^[2] and it also lost its legislative, judicial and electoral powers to the senate. By virtue of his tribunician powers, the emperor always had absolute control over the council.^[2]

References

Abbott, Frank Frost (1901). A History and Description of Roman Political Institutions. Elibron Classics (
ISBN 0-543-92749-0
).

Byrd, Robert (1995). The Senate of the Roman Republic. U.S. Government Printing Office, Senate Document 103-23.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius (1841). The Political Works of Marcus Tullius Cicero: Comprising his Treatise on the Commonwealth; and his Treatise on the Laws. Translated from the original, with Dissertations and Notes in Two Volumes. By Francis Barham, Esq. London: Edmund Spettigue. Vol. 1.

Lintott, Andrew (1999). The Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press (
ISBN 0-19-926108-3
).

Polybius (1823). The General History of Polybius: Translated from the Greek. By James Hampton. Oxford: Printed by W. Baxter. Fifth Edition, Vol 2.
Taylor, Lily Ross (1966). Roman Voting Assemblies: From the Hannibalic War to the Dictatorship of Caesar. The University of Michigan Press (
ISBN 0-472-08125-X
).

Notes

^ ^a ^b Abbott, 278
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p Abbott, 397

Ihne, Wilhelm. Researches Into the History of the Roman Constitution. William Pickering. 1853.
Johnston, Harold Whetstone. Orations and Letters of Cicero: With Historical Introduction, An Outline of the Roman Constitution, Notes, Vocabulary and Index. Scott, Foresman and Company. 1891.
Mommsen, Theodor. Roman Constitutional Law. 1871-1888
Tighe, Ambrose. The Development of the Roman Constitution. D. Apple & Co. 1886.
Von Fritz, Kurt. The Theory of the Mixed Constitution in Antiquity. Columbia University Press, New York. 1975.
The Histories by Polybius
Cambridge Ancient History, Volumes 9–13.
A. Cameron, The Later Roman Empire, (Fontana Press, 1993).
M. Crawford, The Roman Republic, (Fontana Press, 1978).
E. S. Gruen, "The Last Generation of the Roman Republic" (U California Press, 1974)
F. Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World, (Duckworth, 1977, 1992).
A. Lintott, "The Constitution of the Roman Republic" (Oxford University Press, 1999)

Primary sources

Secondary source material

[Abbott,_278-1] Abbott, 278

[Abbott,_397-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p Abbott, 397

[1]

[2]

v t e Roman Constitution
Ancient Rome	History Constitution Senate Assemblies Curiate Centuriate Tribal Plebeian Magistrates
Roman Kingdom	History Constitution Senate Assemblies Magistrates
Roman Republic	History Constitution reforms of Sulla reforms of Caesar reforms of Augustus Senate Assemblies Magistrates
Roman Empire	History (post Diocletian) Constitution (post Diocletian) Senate Assemblies Magistrates
Miscellaneous	Conflict of the Orders Roman law