[27]
Now,
because you have preserved the comitia centuriata and tributa, the curiata have remained only for
the sake of the auspices. But this tribune of the people, because he saw that no man could
possibly have any authority conferred on him without the authority of the burghers 1 or of the commonalty, confirmed that authority which he proposed to
give by the curiata comitia, with which you have nothing to do,
and took away the comitia tributa which belonged to you. So,
though your ancestors intended you to decide at two comitia
about each magistrate, this man, so attached to the interests of the people, did not leave
the people the power of even one comitia.
1 The Latin terms are populus and plebs. For the best account of the populus to be found in a small space, see Smith's Dict. Ant. p. 726, v. Patricii; and consult the same admirable book, p. 765, v. Plebes, or plebs. The word potestas, which I have translated “authority,” means strictly only civil authority, in opposition to imperium, military command.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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