=The Freedmen.=—­The last of all the citizens are the freedmen, once slaves, or the sons of slaves.  The taint of their origin remains on them; they are not admitted to service in the Roman army and they vote after all the rest.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC

=The Comitia.=—­The government of Rome called itself a republic (Respublica), that is to say, a thing of the people.  The body of citizens called the people was regarded as absolute master in the state.  It is this body that elects the magistrates, votes on peace and war, and that makes the laws.  “The law,” say the jurisconsults, “is what the Roman people ordains.”  At Rome, as in Greece, the people do not appoint deputies, they pass on the business itself.  Even after more than 500,000 men scattered over all Italy were admitted into the citizenship, the citizens had to go in person to Rome to exercise their rights.  The people, therefore, meet at but one place; the assembly is called the Comitia.

A magistrate convokes the people and presides over the body.  Sometimes the people are convoked by the blast of the trumpet and come to the parade-ground (the Campus Martius), ranging themselves by companies under their standards.  This is the Comitia by centuries.  Sometimes they assemble in the market-place (the forum) and separate themselves into thirty-five groups, called tribes.  Each tribe in turn enters an enclosed space where it does its voting.  This is the Comitia by tribes.  The magistrate who convokes the assembly indicates the business on which the suffrages are to be taken, and when the assembly has voted, it dissolves.  The people are sovereign, but accustomed to obey their chiefs.

=The Magistrates.=—­Every year the people elect officials to govern them and to them they delegate absolute power.  These are called magistrates (those who are masters).  Lictors march before them bearing a bundle of rods and an axe, emblems of the magisterial powers of chastising and condemning to death.  The magistrate has at once the functions of presiding over the popular assembly and the senate, of sitting in court, and of commanding the army; he is master everywhere.  He convokes and dissolves the assembly at will, he alone renders judgment, he does with the soldiers as he pleases, putting them to death without even taking counsel with his officers.  In a war against the Latins Manlius, the Roman general, had forbidden the soldiers leaving camp:  his son, provoked by one of the enemy, went forth and killed him; Manlius had him arrested and executed him immediately.

According to the Roman expression, the magistrate has the power of a king; but this power is brief and divided.  The magistrate is elected for but one year and he has a colleague who has the same power as himself.  There are at once in Rome two consuls who govern the people and command the armies, and several praetors to serve as subordinate governors or commanders and to pronounce judgment.  There are other magistrates, besides—­two censors, four aediles to supervise the public ways and the markets, ten tribunes of the plebs, and quaestors to care for the state treasure.