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85-472: Since the Romans used a form of direct democracy, citizens, and not elected representatives, voted before each assembly. As such, the citizen-electors had no power, other than the power to cast a vote. Each assembly was presided over by a single Roman Magistrate, and as such, it was the presiding magistrate who made all decisions on matters of procedure and legality. Ultimately, the presiding magistrate's power over

170-513: A back, between which a rich textile was stretched. The cross-framed armchair, no longer actually a folding chair, continued to have regal connotations. James I of England was portrayed with such a chair, its framing entirely covered with a richly patterned silk damask textile, with decorative nailing, in Paul van Somer 's portrait, and in his portrait by John de Critz. Similar early 17th-century cross-framed seats survive at Knole , perquisites from

255-400: A committee of ten men, known as the decemviri , or decemvirs, to serve for one year in place of the annual magistrates, and codify Roman law. The tribunate itself was suspended during this time. But when a second college of decemvirs appointed for the year 450 illegally continued their office into the following year, and the abuses of their authority became clear to the people, the decemvirate

340-473: A curule magistracy; when traversed by a hasta , it is the symbol of Juno . The curule seat was also used in funeral processions. Several pieces of Etruscan art, urns, and tomb reliefs from the 4th century BCE portray a magistrate's funerary procession. The curule seat was one of the many symbols displayed during the procession which indicated his status and prestige, along with the fasces , lituus-bearers, and other emblems of his office. The custom of bearing

425-565: A division such that the citizen-soldiers had the responsibility of electing the consuls and praetors, and therefore, their leaders. The Roman army was based on units called centuries , which were comparable to Companies in a modern army. While Centuries in the Roman army always consisted of about one hundred soldiers, Centuries in the Centuriate Assembly usually did not. This was because the property qualifications for membership in

510-405: A golden image of him. Polybus detailed that the representatives of the family would sit in the curule seats of the deceased during public ceremonies. Additionally, the curule seat of a magistrate was also ceremonially paraded while he was living. An example of this appears when the golden sella curules of Tiberius and Sejanus were displayed at the ludi scaenici in 30 CE. In Rome, the curule chair

595-401: A hill outside of Rome. The senate dispatched Agrippa Menenius Lanatus , a former consul who was well liked by the plebeians, as an envoy. Menenius was well received, and told the fable of the belly and the limbs, likening the people to the limbs who chose not to support the belly, and thus starved themselves; just as the belly and the limbs, the city, he explained, could not survive without both

680-437: A law permitting the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians, and allowing one of the consuls to be a plebeian. Rather than permit the election of a plebeian consul, the senate resolved upon the election of military tribunes with consular power , who might be elected from either order. Initially this compromise satisfied the plebeians, but in practice only patricians were elected. The regular election of military tribunes in

765-465: A mechanism through which electors could appeal decisions of the presiding magistrate. There were also religious officials (known as Augurs ) either in attendance or on-call, who would be available to help interpret any signs from the Gods (omens), since the Romans believed that their gods let their approval or disapproval with proposed actions be known. In addition, a preliminary search for omens ( auspices )

850-416: A plebeian. Although this law was occasionally violated by the election of two patrician consuls, Sextius himself was elected consul for 366, and Licinius in 364. At last, the plebeian tribunes had broken the patrician monopoly on the highest magistracies of the state. Following their victory in 367, the tribunes remained an important check on the power of the senate and the annual magistrates. In 287 BC,

935-431: A red leather ribbon into a cylinder, and while out of the city, with a blade on the side, projecting from the bundle. While the voters in this assembly wore white undecorated togas and were unarmed, they were still metaphorically soldiers, and as such they could not meet inside of the physical boundary of the city of Rome (the pomerium ). Because of this, as well as the large size of the assembly (as many as 373 centuries),

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1020-541: A royal event. The photo of actor Edwin Booth as Hamlet poses him in a regal cross-framed chair, considered suitably medieval in 1870. The form found its way into stylish but non-royal decoration in the archaeological second phase of neoclassicism in the early 19th century. An unusually early example of this revived form is provided by the large sets of richly carved and gilded pliants (folding stools) forming part of long sets with matching tabourets delivered in 1786 to

1105-645: A scepter, golden crown, horse, armor, and embroidered robe), signified that the foreign king was worthy of this delegated power. Folding chairs of foreign origin were mentioned in China by the 2nd century AD, possibly related to the curule seat. These chairs were called hu chuang ("barbarian bed"), and Frances Wood argues that they came from the Eastern Roman Empire , since the cultures of Persia and Arabia preferred cushions and divans instead. A poem by Yu Jianwu , written about 552 AD, reads: By

1190-616: A separate property requirement: The first classes consisted of soldiers with heavy armor (see Triarii and Principes ), the lower classes had successively less armor (see Hastati and Velites ), and the soldiers of the fifth class had nothing more than slings and stones. Each of the five property classes were divided equally between centuries of younger soldiers and centuries of older soldiers. The first class of enlisted soldiers consisted of eighty centuries, classes two through four consisted of twenty centuries each, and class five consisted of thirty centuries. The unarmed soldiers were divided into

1275-401: A similar three market-day interval to pass between the proposal of a law and the vote on that law. During criminal trials, the assembly's presiding magistrate had to give a notice ( diem dicere ) to the accused person on the first day of the investigation ( anquisito ). At the end of each day, the magistrate had to give another notice to the accused person ( diem prodicere ), which informed him of

1360-437: A substantial gain from his actions. In 48 BC, the senate bestowed the tribunicia potestas (tribunician power) on the dictator Gaius Julius Caesar , who, as a patrician, was ineligible to be elected one of the tribunes. When two of the elected tribunes attempted to obstruct his actions, Caesar had them impeached, and taken before the senate, where they were deprived of their powers. Never again did Caesar face opposition from

1445-411: A tribune could veto any action of the magistrates, senate, or other assemblies, he had to be physically present in order to do so. Because the sacrosanctity of the tribunes depended on the oath of the plebeians to defend them, their powers were limited to the boundaries of the city of Rome. A tribune traveling abroad could not rely on his authority to intervene on behalf of the plebeians. For this reason,

1530-444: A tribune, he could "interpose the sacrosanctity of his person" to prevent such action. Even a dictator (and presumably an interrex ) was not exempted from the veto power, although some sources may suggest the contrary. The tribunes could veto acts of the Roman senate. The tribune Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus imposed his veto on all government functions in 133 BC, when the senate attempted to block his agrarian reforms by imposing

1615-409: A voting century did not change over time, as property qualifications for membership in a military century did. Soldiers in the Roman army were classified on the basis of the amount of property that they owned, and as such, soldiers with more property outranked soldiers with less property. Since the wealthy soldiers were divided into more centuries in the early Roman army, with a greater military burden,

1700-629: A wooden back. 19th-century dealers and collectors termed these " Dante Chairs " or " Savonarola Chairs ", with disregard to the centuries intervening between the two figures. Examples of curule seats were redrawn from a 15th-century manuscript of the Roman de Renaude de Montauban and published in Henry Shaw 's Specimens of Ancient Furniture (1836). The 15th or early 16th-century curule seat that survives at York Minster , originally entirely covered with textiles, has rear members extended upwards to form

1785-682: Is a design of a (usually) foldable and transportable chair noted for its uses in Ancient Rome and Europe through to the 20th century. Its status in early Rome as a symbol of political or military power carried over to other civilizations, as it was also used in this capacity by kings in Europe, Napoleon , and others. In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire , the curule chair ( sella curulis , supposedly from currus , "chariot")

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1870-576: Is conserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France . The "throne of Dagobert" is first mentioned in the 12th century, already as a treasured relic, by Abbot Suger , who claims in his Administratione , "We also restored the noble throne of the glorious King Dagobert , on which, as tradition relates, the Frankish kings sat to receive the homage of their nobles after they had assumed power. We did so in recognition of its exalted function and because of

1955-730: The Convention ( conventio , literally "coming together") was an unofficial forum for communication. Conventions were simply forums where Romans met for specific unofficial purposes, such as, for example, to hear a political speech. Private citizens who did not hold political office could only speak before a Convention, and not before a Committee or a Council. Conventions were simply meetings, and no legal or legislative decisions could be made in one. Voters always assembled first into Conventions to hear debates and conduct other business before voting, and then into Committees or Councils to actually vote. A notice always had to be given several days before

2040-503: The circus maximus was awarded to the Roman dictator Manius Valerius Maximus as a result of his victory over the Sabines . According to Cassius Dio , early in 44 BC a senate decree granted Julius Caesar the curule seat everywhere except in the theatre, where his gilded chair and jeweled crown were carried in, putting him on a par with the gods. The curule chair is also used on Roman medals as well as funerary monuments to express

2125-468: The republic , was temporary, not perennial. The chair could be folded, and thus was easily transportable; this accords with its original function for magisterial and promagisterial commanders in the field. It developed a hieratic significance, expressed in fictive curule seats on funerary monuments, a symbol of power which was never entirely lost in post-Roman European tradition. 6th-century consular ivory diptychs of Orestes and of Constantinus each depict

2210-599: The Servian organization to this assembly. They restored the less aristocratic organization (from 241 BC by the Censors Marcus Fabius Buteo and Gaius Aurelius Cotta ). Tribune of the Plebs Tribune of the plebs , tribune of the people or plebeian tribune ( Latin : tribunus plebis ) was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians , and was, throughout

2295-546: The Servian organization, the assembly was so aristocratic that the officer class and the first class of enlisted soldiers controlled enough centuries for an outright majority. Some time between 241 and 216 BC the centuries were reapportioned. Under the old system, there were a total of 193 centuries, while under the new system, there were a total of 373 centuries. Under the new system, the thirty-five Tribes were each divided into ten centuries: five of older soldiers, and five of younger soldiers. Of each of these five centuries, one

2380-473: The activities of the tribunes were normally confined to the city itself, and a one-mile radius beyond. In 471 BC the Lex Publilia transferred the election of the tribunes from comitia curiata to the comitia tributa , thus removing the influence of the patricians on their election. In 462, the tribune Gaius Terentillius Arsa alleged that the consular government had become even more oppressive than

2465-470: The assembly often met on the Field of Mars (Latin: Campus Martius ), which was a large field located right outside of the city wall. The president of the Centuriate Assembly was usually a Consul (although sometimes a Praetor). Only Consuls (the highest-ranking of all Roman Magistrates) could preside over the Centuriate Assembly during elections because the higher-ranking Consuls were always elected together with

2550-443: The assembly was nearly absolute. The only check on that power came in the form of vetoes handed down by other magistrates. Any decision made by a presiding magistrate could be vetoed by a tribune of the plebs , or by a higher-ranked magistrate (for example, a consul could veto a praetor). In the Roman system of direct democracy , two primary types of assembly were used to vote on legislative, electoral, and judicial matters. The first

2635-408: The assembly was to actually vote. For elections, at least three market-days (often more than seventeen actual days) had to pass between the announcement of the election, and the actual election. During this time period (the trinundinum ), the candidates interacted with the electorate, and no legislation could be proposed or voted upon. In 98 BC, a law was passed (the lex Caecilia Didia ) which required

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2720-479: The auspices correctly; the consuls were forced to resign and new elections were organised. On the day of the vote, the electors first assembled into their Conventions for debate and campaigning. In the Conventions, the electors were not sorted into their respective centuries. Speeches from private citizens were only heard if the issue to be voted upon was a legislative or judicial matter, and even then, only if

2805-636: The authority of the magistrate/owner of the sella curulis. Imagery of a slave carrying a curule seat can be seen in archaic Etruscan art ( see in Gallery "Tomb of the Augurs" 530 BCE ). As seen on the Tomb of Augurs, a small slave is seen to be bearing a sella curulis on his shoulders in the lower left corner. In the Tomb of the Jugglers from 520 BCE ( see in Gallery "Tomb of the Jugglers" ), the magistrate for whom

2890-494: The citizen received permission from the presiding magistrate. If the purpose of the ultimate vote was for an election, no speeches from private citizens were heard, and instead, the candidates for office used the convention to campaign. During the convention, the bill to be voted upon was read to the assembly by an officer known as a "Herald". A tribune of the plebs could use his veto against pending legislation up until this point, but not after. The electors were then told to break up

2975-456: The consul seated on an elaborate curule seat with crossed animal legs. As a form of throne , the sella might be given as an honor to foreign kings recognized formally as allies by the Roman people or Senate . The ivory curule seat specifically was used as an honorary gift which was sent to foreign kings by the senate of Rome. The presentation of the insignia of royalty which included an ivory curule seat, (along with other insignia such as

3060-488: The convention ("depart to your separate groups", or discedite, quirites ), and assemble into their formal century. The electors assembled behind a fenced off area and voted by placing a pebble or written ballot into an appropriate jar. The baskets ( cistae ) that held the votes were watched by specific officers (the custodes ), who then counted the ballots, and reported the results to the presiding magistrate. The majority of votes in any century decided how that century voted. If

3145-512: The curule chair of the magistrate at his funeral was present in Rome as well. The funerary monument from via Labicana itself is shaped like a sella curulis ( see in Gallery below ). Additionally, on the top beam of the monument, the frieze prominently features a sella curulis beside the presumed magistrate and his attendants. For example, Dio recounts that Caesar’s golden curule seat was displayed in his funeral procession along with his golden crown and

3230-610: The expulsion of the kings and establishment of the Roman Republic, the plebeians were burdened by crushing debt. A series of clashes between the people and the ruling patricians in 495 and 494 BC brought the plebeians to the brink of revolt, and there was talk of assassinating the consuls. Instead, on the advice of Lucius Sicinius Vellutus , the plebeians seceded en masse to the Mons Sacer (the Sacred Mount),

3315-434: The final five centuries: four of these centuries were composed of artisans and musicians (such as trumpeters and horn blowers), while the fifth century (the proletarii ) consisted of people with little or no property. During a vote, all of the centuries of one class had to vote before the centuries of the next lower class could vote. The seven classes voted in a specific order: The first enlisted class voted first, followed by

3400-477: The granting of this authority was a means of designating a favoured member of the imperial court as the emperor's intended successor. Agrippa , Drusus the Younger , Tiberius , Titus , Trajan , and Marcus Aurelius each received the tribunician power in this way. With the regular assumption of the tribunician power by the emperors and their heirs, the ancient authority of the tribunes dwindled away. Although

3485-611: The history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of the Roman Senate and magistrates . These tribunes had the power to convene and preside over the Concilium Plebis (people's assembly); to summon the senate; to propose legislation; and to intervene on behalf of plebeians in legal matters; but the most significant power was to veto the actions of the consuls and other magistrates, thus protecting

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3570-511: The interests of the plebeians as a class. The tribunes of the plebs were typically found seated on special benches set up for them in the Roman Forum . The tribunes were sacrosanct , meaning that any assault on their person was punishable by death. In imperial times , the powers of the tribunate were granted to the emperor as a matter of course, and the office itself lost its independence and most of its functions. Fifteen years after

3655-590: The lower-ranking Praetors. Consuls and Praetors were usually elected in July, and took office in January. Two Consuls, and at least six Praetors, were elected each year for an annual term that began in January and ended in December. In contrast, two Censors were elected every five years on average. Once every five years, after the new Consuls for the year took office, they presided over the Centuriate Assembly as it elected

3740-589: The miscellaneous class (mostly unarmed adjuncts). The officer class was grouped into eighteen centuries, six of which (the sex suffragia ) were composed exclusively of Patricians . The enlisted class was grouped into 170 centuries. Most enlisted individuals (those aged seventeen to forty-six) were grouped into eighty-five centuries of "junior soldiers" ( iuniores or "young men"). The relatively limited number of enlisted soldiers who were aged forty-six to sixty were grouped into eighty-five centuries of "senior soldiers" ( seniores or "old men"). The result of this arrangement

3825-426: The monarchy that it had replaced. He urged the passage of a law appointing five commissioners to define and limit the powers of the consuls. By threat of war and plague, the issue was postponed for five contentious years, with the same college of tribunes elected each year. In 457, hoping to deprive the law's supporters of their impetus, the senate agreed to increase the number of tribunes to ten, provided that none of

3910-536: The name handed down you are from a foreign region coming into [China] and being used in the capital With legs leaning your frame adjusts by itself With limbs slanting your body levels by itself... In Gaul the Merovingian successors to Roman power employed the curule seat as an emblem of their right to dispense justice, and their Capetian successors retained the iconic seat: the " Throne of Dagobert ", of cast bronze retaining traces of its former gilding,

3995-412: The office of tribune endured throughout imperial times , its independence and most of its practical functions were lost. Together with the aedileship, it remained a step in the political career of many plebeians who aspired to sit in the senate, at least until the third century. There is evidence that the tribunate continued to exist as late as the fifth century AD. Curule chair A curule seat

4080-481: The office was further impaired when, in 59 BC, the patrician Publius Clodius Pulcher , who aspired to hold the tribunician power, had himself adopted by a plebeian youth, and renounced his patrician status, in order to be elected tribune for the following year. Although considered outrageous at the time, Clodius' scheme was allowed to proceed, and he embarked on a program of legislation designed to outlaw his political opponents and confiscate their property, while realizing

4165-425: The officer class (with the six patrician equestrian centuries voting first among them), then the second enlisted class, then the third enlisted class, then the fourth enlisted class, then the fifth enlisted class, and then finally the unarmed centuries. When a measure received a simple majority of the vote, the voting ended, and as such, many lower ranking centuries rarely if ever had a chance to actually vote. Under

4250-599: The old Servian organization to this assembly. This reform was one in a slate of constitutional reforms enacted by Sulla as a consequence of the recent Civil War between his supporters and those of the former Consul Gaius Marius . His reforms were intended to reassert aristocratic control over the constitution, and thus prevent the emergence of another Marius. Sulla died in 78 BC, and in 70 BC, the Consuls Pompey Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus repealed Sulla's constitutional reforms, including his restoration of

4335-412: The patricians and plebeians working in concert. The plebeians agreed to negotiate for their return to the city; and their condition was that special tribunes should be appointed to represent the plebeians, and to protect them from the power of the consuls. No member of the senatorial class would be eligible for this office (in practice, this meant that only plebeians were eligible for the tribunate), and

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4420-437: The place of consuls prevented any plebeians from assuming the highest offices of state until the year 400, when four of the six military tribunes were plebeians. Plebeian military tribunes served in 399, 396, 383, and 379, but in all other years between 444 and 376 BC, every consul or military tribune with consular powers was a patrician. Beginning in 376, Gaius Licinius Calvus Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus , tribunes of

4505-409: The plebeian tribunes and aediles. From the institution of the tribunate, any one of the tribunes of the plebs was entitled to preside over this assembly. The tribunes were entitled to propose legislation before the assembly. By the third century BC, the tribunes also had the right to call the senate to order, and lay proposals before it. Ius intercessionis , also called intercessio, the power of

4590-474: The plebs, used the veto power to prevent the election of any annual magistrates. Continuing in office each year, they frustrated the patricians, who, despite electing patrician military tribunes from 371 to 367, finally conceded the consulship, agreeing to the Licinian Rogations . Under this law, military tribunes with consular power were abolished, and one of the consuls elected each year was to be

4675-431: The process was not complete by nightfall, the electors were dismissed without having reached a decision, and the process had to begin again the next day. The presiding magistrate sat on a special chair (the " curule chair "), wore a purple-bordered toga , and was accompanied by bodyguards called lictors . Each lictor carried the symbol of state power, the fasces , which was a bundle of white birch rods, tied together with

4760-537: The redesign. Now, majorities usually could not be reached until the third class of enlisted centuries had begun voting. Since the lowest ranking century in the Centuriate Assembly, the fifth unarmed century (the proletarii ), was always the last century to vote, it never had any real influence on elections, and as such, it was so poorly regarded that it was all but ignored during the Census. During his dictatorship from 82 BC until 80 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla restored

4845-797: The royal châteaux of Compiègne and Fontainebleau . With their Imperial Roman connotations, the backless curule seats found their way into furnishings for Napoleon, who moved some of the former royal pliants into his state bedchamber at Fontainebleau. Further examples were ordered, in the newest Empire taste: Jacob-Desmalter 's seats with members in the form of carved and gilded sheathed sabres were delivered to Saint-Cloud about 1805. Cross-framed drawing-room chairs are illustrated in Thomas Sheraton 's last production, The Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer and General Artist's Encyclopaedia (1806), and in Thomas Hope 's Household Furniture (1807). With

4930-453: The seat, such as: "sella regia (royal chair), sella ducis (general's chair), sella consularis (consular chair), sella consulis (chair of a consul), sella eburnea (an ivory seat often used a gift for foreign dignitaries), sella castrensis (the campstool, a military version of the sella curulis), and sella aurea (a gold chair)." The curule seat was carried by public slaves when being transported from place to place. This custom further symbolized

5015-529: The sella curulis was destroyed. According to Livy , the curule seat, like the Roman toga , originated in Etruria , and it has been used on surviving Etruscan monuments to identify magistrates. However, much earlier stools supported on a cross-frame are known from the New Kingdom of Egypt . One of the earliest recorded examples of the curule chair proper was in 494 BC when the honour of a curule chair in

5100-432: The sella curulis was purposely destroyed. The destruction of the chair as a means to disrupt or attack a magistrate’s rule did not actually prevent the owner of the curule seat from exercising his power. In Cassius Dio ’s Roman History , Dio recounts the event where Glabrio destroyed Lucius Lucullus’ curule seat out of anger towards Lucullus. However, Lucullus and his attending officials still proceeded with business although

5185-486: The senate formally recognized the plebiscita as laws with binding force. In 149 BC, men elected to the tribunate automatically entered the Senate. However, in 81 BC, the dictator Sulla , who considered the tribunate a threat to his power, deprived the tribunes of their powers to initiate legislation, and to veto acts of the senate. He also prohibited former tribunes from holding any other office, effectively preventing

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5270-467: The situation, and determine the lawfulness of the magistrate's action. Any action taken in defiance of this right was illegal on its face. In effect, this gave the tribunes of the people unprecedented power to protect individuals from the arbitrary exercise of state power, and afforded Roman citizens a degree of liberty unequalled in the ancient world. If the tribune decided to act, he would impose his ius intercessionis ("right of intercession"). Although

5355-543: The status of the investigation. After the investigation was complete, a three market-day interval had to elapse before a final vote could be taken with respect to conviction or acquittal. Only one assembly could operate at any given point in time, and any session already underway could be dissolved if a magistrate "called away" ( avocare ) the electors. In addition to the presiding magistrate, several additional magistrates were often present to act as assistants. They were available to help resolve procedural disputes, and to provide

5440-468: The three flamines maiores or high priests of the Archaic Triad of major gods were each granted the honor of the curule chair. Additionally, when an interregnum occurred in the Roman republic, the interrex was also granted a sella curulis along with the other symbols of power given to a regular magistrate. The precise name of the curule seat also varied based on the specific type and holder of

5525-455: The tomb is dedicated to is also seen to be seated on his sella curulis on the far right which indicates that he is the owner and magistrate. The curule chairs themselves indicated the authority of the magistrate as he conducted business while sitting in the chair. Therefore, the seats themselves have been symbolically viewed as political pawns for power over Rome itself. However, this powerful symbolism appears to be limited due to incidents where

5610-399: The tribunes from the preceding years should be re-elected. However, the new tribunes continued to press for the adoption of Terentillus' law, until in 454 the senate agreed to appoint three commissioners to study Greek laws and institutions, and on their return help to resolve the strife between the orders. On the return of the envoys, the senate and the tribunes agreed to the appointment of

5695-464: The tribunes may have originally been two or five in number. If the former, the college of tribunes was expanded to five in 470 BC. Either way, the college was increased to ten in 457 BC, and remained at this number throughout Roman history. They were assisted by two aediles plebis , or plebeian aediles. Only plebeians were eligible for these offices, although there were at least two exceptions. Although sometimes referred to as plebeian magistrates,

5780-415: The tribunes of the people, like the plebeian aediles , who were created at the same time, were technically not magistrates, as they were elected by the plebeian assembly alone. However, they functioned very much like magistrates of the Roman state. They could convene the concilium plebis , which was entitled to pass legislation affecting the plebeians alone ( plebiscita ), and beginning in 493 BC to elect

5865-506: The tribunes should be sacrosanct; any person who laid hands on one of the tribunes would be outlawed, and the whole body of the plebeians entitled to kill such person without fear of penalty. The senate agreeing to these terms, the people returned to the city. The first tribuni plebis were Lucius Albinius Paterculus and Gaius Licinius , appointed for the year 493 BC. Soon afterward, the tribunes themselves appointed Sicinius and two others as their colleagues. The ancient sources indicate

5950-412: The tribunes to intercede on behalf of the plebeians and veto the actions of the magistrates, was unique in Roman history. Because they were not technically magistrates, and thus possessed no maior potestas , they relied on their sacrosanctity to obstruct actions unfavourable to the plebeians. Being sacrosanct, no person could harm the tribunes or interfere with their activities. To do so, or to disregard

6035-413: The tribunes; he held the tribunician power until his death in 44. In 23 BC, the senate bestowed the tribunician power on Caesar's nephew, Octavian , now styled Augustus . From this point, the tribunicia potestas became a pre-requisite for the emperors, most of whom received it from the senate upon claiming the throne, though some had already received this power during the reigns of their predecessors;

6120-480: The two Censors. The Centuriate Assembly was supposedly founded by the legendary Roman King Servius Tullius , less than a century before the founding of the Roman Republic in 509 BC. As such, the original design of the Centuriate Assembly was known as the " Servian organization ". Under this organization, the assembly was supposedly designed to mirror the Roman army during the time of the Roman Kingdom , with

6205-443: The use of the tribunate as a stepping stone to higher office. Although the tribunes retained the power to intercede on behalf of individual citizens, most of their authority was lost under Sulla's reforms. Former tribunes were once again admitted to the annual magistracies beginning in 75 BC, and the tribunician authority was fully restored by the consuls Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus in 70. The dignity of

6290-409: The value of the work itself." Abbot Suger added bronze upper members with foliated scrolls and a back-piece. The "Throne of Dagobert" was coarsely repaired and used for the coronation of Napoleon . In the 15th century, a characteristic folding-chair of both Italy and Spain was made of numerous shaped cross-framed elements, joined to wooden members that rested on the floor and further made rigid with

6375-411: The veto of a tribune, was punishable by death, and the tribunes could order the death of persons who violated their sacrosanctity. This could be used as a protection when a tribune needed to arrest someone. This sacrosanctity also made the tribunes independent of all magistrates; no magistrate could veto the action of a tribune. If a magistrate, the senate, or any other assembly disregarded the orders of

6460-417: The veto of another tribune. Tribunes also possessed the authority to enforce the right of provocatio ad populum , a precursor of the modern right of habeas corpus . This entitled a citizen to appeal the actions of a magistrate by shouting appello tribunos! ("I call upon the tribunes") or provoco ad populum! ("I appeal to the people"). Once invoked, this right required one of the tribunes to assess

6545-480: The wealthy soldiers were also divided into more centuries in the Centuriate Assembly. Thus, the wealthy soldiers, who were fewer in number and had more to lose, had a greater overall influence. The 193 centuries in the assembly under the Servian Organization were each divided into one of three different grades: the officer class (the cavalry or equites ), the enlisted class (infantry or pedites ) and

6630-527: Was abolished and the tribunate restored, together with the annual magistrates. Among the laws codified by the decemvirs was one forbidding intermarriage between the patricians and the plebeians; the Twelve Tables of Roman law also codified that the consulate itself was closed to the plebeians. Worse still, in 448, two patricians were co-opted to fill vacant positions in the tribunate, although they proved to be of moderate views, and their year of office

6715-454: Was assigned to one of the five property classes. Therefore, each Tribe had two centuries (one of older soldiers and one of younger soldiers) allocated to each of the five property classes. In addition, the property requirements for each of the five classes were probably raised. In total, this resulted in 350 centuries of enlisted soldiers. The same eighteen centuries of officers, and the same five centuries of unarmed soldiers, were also included in

6800-451: Was conducted by the presiding magistrate the night before any meeting. On several known occasions, presiding magistrates used the claim of unfavorable omens as an excuse to suspend a session that was not going the way they wanted. In 162, the presiding magistrate, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus , even cancelled the elections of the consuls Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum and Gaius Marcius Figulus because he found he had not conducted

6885-402: Was peaceful. To prevent future attempts by the patricians to influence the selection of tribunes, Lucius Trebonius Asper promulgated a law forbidding the tribunes to co-opt their colleagues, and requiring their election to continue until all of the seats were filled. But relations between the orders deteriorated, until in 445, the tribunes, led by Gaius Canuleius , were able to push through

6970-464: Was that the votes of the older soldiers carried more weight than did the votes of the numerically greater younger soldiers. According to Cicero , the Consul of 63 BC, this design was intentional so that the decisions of the assembly were more in line with the will of the more experienced soldiers who arguably had more to lose. The 170 centuries of enlisted soldiers were divided into five classes, each with

7055-458: Was the committee ( comitia , literally "going together" or "meeting place"). The Centuriate Assembly was a Committee. Committees were assemblies of all citizens , and were used for official purposes, such as for the enactment of laws. Acts of a Committee applied to all of the members of that Committee. The second type of assembly was the council ( concilium ), which was a forum where specific groups of citizens met for official purposes. In contrast,

7140-432: Was the seat upon which magistrates holding imperium were entitled to sit. This includes dictators , magistri equitum , consuls , praetors , curule aediles , and the promagistrates , temporary or de facto holders of such offices. Additionally, the censors and the flamen of Jupiter ( Flamen Dialis ) were also allowed to sit on a curule seat, though these positions did not hold imperium . Livy writes that

7225-401: Was traditionally made of or veneered with ivory , with curved legs forming a wide X; it had no back, and low arms. Although often of luxurious construction, this chair was meant to be uncomfortable to sit on for long periods of time, the double symbolism being that the official was expected to carry out his public function in an efficient and timely manner, and that his office, being an office of

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