COMITIA, the name applied to the most formal types of gathering of the sovereign people in ancient Rome, is the plural of comitium, the old "meeting-place," on the north-west of the Forum. The Romans had three words for describing gatherings of the people. These were concilium, comitia and contio. Of these concilium could be applied to any kind of meeting and might be employed to denote an organized gathering of a portion of the Roman people such as the plebs, and in this sense is contrasted with comitia, which when used strictly should signify an assembly of the whole people.
Popular phraseology did not conform to this canon, and comitia, which gained in current Latin the sense of "elections" was some times used of the assemblies of the plebs. The distinction between comitia and contio was more clearly marked. Both were formal assemblies convened by a magistrate ; but while, in the case of the comitia, the magistrate's purpose was to ask a question of the people and to elicit their binding response, his object in summon ing a contio was merely to bring the people together either for their instruction or for a declaration of his will as expressed in an edict. The earliest comitia was organized on the basis of par ishes (curiae) of patricians only, and was known in later times as the comitia curiata. The curia voted as a single unit and thus furnished the type for that system of group-voting which is found in the popular assemblies. The organization which gave rise to the comitia centuriata was the result of the earliest steps in the political emancipation of the plebs. Three stages in this process may be traced. In the first place the plebeians gained rights of ownership and transfer, and could thus become freeholders of land and of the appurtenances of this land (res mancipi). This legal capacity rendered them liable to military service as heavy armed fighting men, and as such they were enrolled in the mili tary units called centuriee. When the enrolment was completed the whole host (exercitus) was the best organized and most repre sentative gathering that Rome could show. It therefore became invested with voting powers, and for two centuries (508-287 B.c.) was the dominant assembly in the state. But its aristocratic organization, based on property qualifications which gave the voting power to the greater landowners, prevented it from being a fitting channel for the expression of plebeian claims. Hence the plebs adopted a new political organization of their own. The tribunate called into existence a purely plebeian assembly, the concilium plebis, firstly, for the election of plebeian magistrates; secondly, for jurisdiction in cases where these magistrates had been injured ; thirdly, for presenting petitions on behalf of the plebs through the consuls to the comitia centuriata.. This right of petitioning developed into a power of legislation. The Hor tensian law (287 B.C.) recognized the right of resolutions of the plebs (plebiscite) to bind the whole community. The plebeian assembly was organized on the basis of the territorial tribes in 471 B.C. This change suggested a renewed organization of the whole people for comitial purposes. The comitia tributa populi was the result and appears as a legislative body in 357 B.C.
In spite of the formal differences of these four assemblies and the fact that patricians were not members of the plebeian body, the people expressed its will equally through all, although the mode of expression varied with the channel. This will was in theory unlimited. It was restricted only by the conservatism of the Roman, by the condition that the initiative must always be taken by a magistrate, by the de facto authority of the Senate, and by the magisterial veto which the Senate often had at its command (see SENATE). There were no limitations on the legis lative powers of the comitia except such as they chose to respect or which they themselves created and might repeal. In spite of the creation of quaestiones perpetuae (permanent commissions), they never lost the right of criminal jurisdiction, derived mainly from the right of appeal (provocatio) against the decisions of magistrates. Finally, the assemblies elected to every magistracy, with the exception of the Dictator and the Interrex. The distribu tion of these functions amongst the various comitia, and the differ ences in their organization were as follows :— The comitia curiata in the later republic became a merely formal assembly. Its main function was that of passing the lex curiata necessary for the ratification both of the imperium of the higher magistracies of the people, and of the potestas of those of lower rank. This assembly also met, under the name of the comitia calata, and under the presidency of the pontifex maximus, to perform certain religious functions. For the purpose of passing the lex curiata, this comitia was in Cicero's day represented by but thirty lictors. The comitia centuriata could be summoned and presided over only by the magistrates with imperium. The consuls were its usual presidents for election and for legislation, but the praetors summoned it for purposes of jurisdiction. It elected the magistrates with imperium and the censors, and alone had the power of declaring war. According to the principle laid down in the Twelve Tables, capital cases were reserved for this assembly. It was not frequently employed as a legislative body after the two assemblies of the tribes, which were easier to sum mon and organize, had been recognized as possessing sovereign rights. The internal structure of the comitia centuriata underwent a great change during the republic. In the early scheme the First Class and the equites together could always outvote the rest, having g8 centuries against 95. The newer plan has been inter preted in different ways but the essential fact was that it reduced the combination of equites and prima classis to a minority by a fresh distribution of the classes and centuries over the tribes. In 88 B.C. a return was made to the more aristocratic system by a law passed by the consuls Sulla and Pompeius. But this change was not permanent.
The comitia tributa was in the later republic the usual organ for lav,'s passed by the whole people. Its presidents were the magis trates of the people, usually the consuls and praetors and, for purposes of jurisdiction, the curule aediles. It elected these aediles and other lower magistrates of the people. Its jurisdiction was limited to monetary penalties.
The concilium plebis, although voting, like this last assembly, by tribes, could be summoned and presided over only by plebeian magistrates, and never included the patricians. Its utterances (plebiscita) had the full force of law; it elected the tribunes of the plebs and the plebeian aediles, and it pronounced judgment on the penalties which they proposed. The right of this assembly to exercise capital jurisdiction was questioned; but it possessed the undisputed right of pronouncing outlawry (aquae et ignis inter dictio) against anyone already in exile.
There was a body of rules governing the comitia which were concerned with the time and place of meeting, the forms of pro mulgation and the methods of voting. The comitia curiata and the two assemblies of the tribes met within the walls, the former in the Comitium, the latter in the Forum (q.v.), or on the Area Capitolii; but the elections at these assemblies were in the later Republic held in the Campus Martius outside the walls. The comitia centuriata was by law compelled to meet outside the city, and its gathering place was usually the Campus. Promulga tion was required for the space of 3 nundinae (i.e., 24 days) before a matter was submitted to the people. The voting was preceded by a contio at which a limited debate was permitted by the magis trate. In the assemblies of the curiae and the tribes the voting of the groups took place simultaneously, in that of the centuries in a fixed order. In elections as well as in legislative acts an abso lute majority was required, and hence the candidate who gained a mere relative majority was not returned.
The comitia survived the republic. The last known act of comitial legislation belongs to the reign of Nerva (A.D. 96-98). After the essential elements in the election of magistrates had passed to the Senate in A.D. 14, the formal announcement of the successful candidates (renuntiatio) still continued to be made to the popular assemblies. Early in the 3rd century Dio Cassius still saw the comitia centuriata meeting with all its old solemnities (Dio Cassius, lviii. 2o).