COMITIA, k0-mishq-a (Lat. nem. pl., assem blies from coin- (con-), together -Hire, to go). The legal or constitutional meetings of the Ro man people. convoked by a magistrate, for the purpose of putting a question to the vote. This definition comprehends at least all the eomitia except the Comitia Calata, where the people were present merely as spectators. There were several kinds of eomitia, held for different pur poses, and, according to the mode of constituting the eomitia, the preponderance lay with the patricians or with the plebeians. it was always a fundamental principle of the _Roman Constitu tion that the supreme power was inherent in the citizens, though it might be delogated by them to hereditary or to elected magistrates. All important matters, however, had to be brought before the sovereign people, w110 could either ratify or reject, though without discus sion, the proposals made to. them. Such, at least in theory—and, during the best days of the Re public, in practicealso—was the function of these popular assemblies. As may he readily un derstood, different elements had the ascendency among the Roman people at different periods of their history. So far as it was possible for a •State exposed to so many and such various in fluences to be conservative of its political tradi tions, Rome, whether monarchical, republican, or imperial, was essentially so. But, under the
force of circumstances, from time to time inno vations were introduced which very materially altered the position of the two political parties —the patricians and the plebeians—into which the State was early divided, and by whose dis sensions it was long distracted, and in none of her institutions can the progress of the struggle between these rising factions be more clearly traced than in the motive and power of those assemblies, or comitia, by which the supreme authority of Rome was in succession wielded. It is usual to describe the Roman eomitia as of three kinds, named from the mode in which the people were organized and in which they voted— the Comitia Curiata, or assembly of the curhe; the Comitia Centuriata„ or assembly of the cen turies; and the Comitia Tributa, or assembly of the tribes. To these some add a fourth, the Comitia Calata (from calarc. to call) ; but as this assembly had neither political funetions nor a separate organization, it is unnecessary to do more than mention the name.