opper may be appreciated at one English
shilling, and the 100,000 asses of the first class amounted to 5000
pounds sterling. It will appear from the same reckoning, that an ox was
sold at Rome for five pounds, a sheep for ten shillings, and a quarter
of wheat for one pound ten shillings, (Festus, p. 330, edit. Dacier.
Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 4:) nor do I see any reason to reject these
consequences, which moderate our ideas of the poverty of the first
Romans. * Note: Compare Niebuhr, English translation, vol. i. p. 448,
&c.--M.]

[Footnote 28: Consult the common writers on the Roman Comitia,
especially Sigonius and Beaufort. Spanheim (de Praestantia et Usu
Numismatum, tom. ii. dissert. x. p. 192, 193) shows, on a curious medal,
the Cista, Pontes, Septa, Diribitor, &c.]

[Footnote 29: Cicero (de Legibus, iii. 16, 17, 18) debates this
constitutional question, and assigns to his brother Quintus the most
unpopular side.]

[Footnote 30: Prae tumultu recusantium perferre non potuit, (Sueton.
in August. c. 34.) See Propertius, l. ii. eleg. 6. Heineccius, in a
separate history, has exhausted the whole subject of the Julian and
Papian Poppaean laws, (Opp. tom. vii. P. i. p. 1--479.)]

[Footnote 31: Tacit. Annal. i. 15. Lipsius, Excursus E. in Tacitum.
Note: This error of Gibbon has been long detected. The senate, under
Tiberius did indeed elect the magistrates, who before that emperor were
elected in the comitia. But we find laws enacted by the people during
his reign, and that of Claudius. For example; the Julia-Norbana, Vellea,
and Claudia de tutela foeminarum. Compare the Hist. du Droit Romain,
by M. Hugo, vol. ii. p. 55, 57. The comitia ceased imperceptibly as the
republic gradually expired.--W.]

[Footnote 32: Non ambigitur senatum jus facere posse, is the decision
of Ulpian, (l. xvi. ad Edict. in Pandect. l. i. tit. iii. leg. 9.)
Pomponius taxes the comitia of the people as a turba hominum, (Pandect.
l. i. tit. ii. leg 9.) * Note: The author adopts the opinion, that under
the emperors alone the senate had a share in the legislative power.
They had nevertheless participated in it under the Republic, since
senatus-consulta relating to civil rights have been preserved, which are
much earlier than the reigns of Augustus or Tiberius. It is true that,
under the emperors, the senate exercised this right more frequently, and
that the assemblies of the people had become much more rare, though in
law they were still permitted