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CURIA
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CURIA , in See also:ancient See also:Rome, a See also:section of the See also:Roman See also:people, according to an ancient See also:division traditionally ascribed to See also:Romulus. He is said to have divided the people into three tribes, and to have subdivided each of these into ten curiae, each of which contained a number of families (genies). It is more probable that the curiae were not purely artificial creations, but represent natural associations of familief, artificially regulated and distributed to serve a political•purpose. The See also:local names of curiae which have come down to us suggest a local origin for the See also:groups; but as membership was hereditary, the local tie doubtless See also:grew weak with successive generations. Each curia was organized as a See also:political and religious unit. As a political See also:corporation it had no recognized activities beyond the command of a See also:vote in the See also:Comitia Curiata (see COMITIA), a vote whose nature was determined by a See also:majority in the votes of the individual members (curiales). But as a religious.unit the curia had more individual activity. There were, it is true, ceremonies (sacra) performed by all the curiae to See also:Juno Curis in which each curia offered its See also:part in a collective rite of the whole people; but each curia had also its See also:peculiar sacra and its own See also:special See also:place of See also:worship. The religious affairs of each were conducted by a See also:priest called See also:curio assisted by a See also:flamen curialis. The See also:thirty curiae must always have comprised the whole Roman people; for citizenship depended on membership of a gens (gentilitas) and every member of a gens was ipso facto attached to a curia. They therefore included plebeians as well as See also:patricians (q.v.) from the date at which plebeians were recognized as See also:free members of the See also:body politic. But, just as enjoyment of the full rights of gentilitas was only very gradually granted to plebeians, so it is probable that a plebeian did not, when admitted through a gens into a curia, immediately exercise all the rights of a curialis. It is unlikely, for instance, that plebeians voted in the Comitia Curiata at the See also:early date implied by the authorities; but it is probable that they acquired the right early in the republican See also:period, and certain that they enjoyed it in See also:Cicero's See also:time. A plebeian was for the first time elected curio See also:maximus in 209 B.C. The curia ceased to have any importance as a political organization some time before the See also:close of the republican period. But its religious importance survived during the principate; for the two festivals of the Fornacalia and the Fordicidia were celebrated by the Curiales (See also:Ovid, See also:Fasti, ii. 527, iv. 635). The See also:term curia seems often to have been applied to the See also:common See also:shrine of the curiales, and thus to other places of See also:assembly. Hence the ancient See also:senate See also:house at Rome was known as the Curia Hostilia. The curia was also adopted as a See also:state division in a large number of municipal towns; and the term was often applied to the senate in municipal towns (see DacuRIO), probably from the name of the old senate house at Rome. AuTHoRIT ES.—Mommsen, Romisches Staatsrecht, iii. p. 89 if. (See also:Leipzig, 1887) ; Romische Forschungen i. p. 1¢o if. (See also:Berlin, 1864, &c.); Clason, " See also:Die Zusammensetzung der Curien and ihrer Comitien " (Kritische Erorterungen i., See also:Rostock, 1871) ; Karlowa, Romische Rechtsgeschichte, i. p. 382 if. (Leipzig, 1885) ; E. See also:Hofmann, Patricische and plebeische Curien (Wien, 1879); for the Fornacalia, &c., See also:Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, iii. p. 197 (Leipzig, 1885); for local names of curiae, Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie, iv. p. 1822 (new edition, 1893, &c.) ; 0. See also: W. Botsford, Roman Assemblies (1909). (A. M. CL.)
In See also:medieval Latin the word curia was used in the general sense of " See also:court." It was thus used of " the court," meaning the royal See also:household (aula) ; of " courts " in the sense of See also:solemn assemblies of the See also:great nobles summoned by the See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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