ABSTRACT
Rome in 44 BC was in theory a democracy.1 Laws (leges) were passed by the people as a whole-that is, the adult male citizens, who met for the purpose either in an assembly of the thirty-five tribes of Rome (the comitia tributa) or, more infrequently, in a gathering of the 193 ‘centuries’ into which the citizen body was divided when it was drawn up on the Campus Martius in battle order (the comitia centuriata). It was by a system of group voting at these great mass meetings that war was declared on the state’s enemies, legislation passed to regulate civil relations and criminal conduct, and magistrates appointed to lead troops into battle, conduct campaigns, convene courts, and enact the other multifarious tasks of the execution of government.
