assemblies.
Early in the 3rd century Dio Cassius still saw the _comitia centuriata_
meeting with all its old solemnities (Dio Cassius lviii. 20).

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Mommsen, _Romisches Staatsrecht_, iii. p. 300 foll.
(3rd ed., Leipzig, 1887), and _Romische Forschungen_, Bd. i. (Berlin,
1879); Soltau, _Entstehung und Zusammensetzung der altromischen
Volksversammlungen_, and _Die Gultigkeit der Plebiscite_ (Berlin,
1884); Huschke, _Die Verfassung des Konigs Servius Tullius als
Grundlage zu einer romischen Verfassungsgeschichte_ (Heidelberg,
1838); Borgeaud, _Le Plebiscite dans l'antiquite. Grece et Rome_
(Geneva, 1838); Greenidge, _Roman Public Life_, p. 65 foll., 102, 238
foll. and App. i. (1901); G. W. Botsford, _Roman Assemblies_ (1909).
(A. H. J. G.)

COMITY (from the Lat. _comitas_, courtesy, from _cemis_, friendly,
courteous), friendly or courteous behaviour; a term particularly used in
international law, in the phrase "comity of nations," for the courtesy
of nations towards each other. This has been held by some authorities to
be the basis for the recognition by courts of law of the judgments and
rules of law of foreign tribunals (see INTERNATIONAL LAW, PRIVATE).
"Comity of nations" is sometimes wrongly used, from a confusion with the
Latin _comes_, a companion, for the whole body or company of nations
practising such international courtesy.

COMMA (Gr. [Greek: komma], a thing stamped or cut off, from [Greek:
koptein], to strike), originally, in Greek rhetoric, a short clause,
something less than the "colon"; hence a mark (,), in punctuation, to
show the smallest break in the construction of a sentence. The mark is
also used to separate numerals, mathematical symbols and the like.
Inverted commas, or "quotation-marks," i.e. pairs of commas, the first
inverted, and the last upright, are placed at the beginning and end of a
sentence or word quoted, or of a word used in a technical or
conventional sense; single commas are similarly used for quotations
within quotations. The word is also applied to comma-shaped objects,
such as the "comma-bacillus," the causal agent in cholera.

COMMANDEER (from the South African Dutch _kommanderen_, to command),
properly, to compel the performance of military duty in the field,
especially of the military service of the Boer republics (see COMMANDO);
also to seize property for military purposes; hence used of any
peremptory seizure for other