capital causes.

_Comitia centuriata_ were assemblies of the various centuries into which
the six classes of the people were divided.

Those who belonged to the first class were termed _classici_, by way of
pre-eminence--hence _auctores classici_, respectable or standard
authors; those of the last class, who had no fortune, were called
_capite censi_, or _proletarii_; and those belonging to the middle
classes were all said to be _infra classem_--below the class.

_Comitia centuriata_ were the most important of all the assemblies of
the people. In these, laws were enacted, magistrates elected, and
criminals tried. Their meeting was in the Campus Martius.

It was necessary that these assemblies should have been summoned
seventeen days previously to their meeting, in order that the people
might have time to reflect on the business which was to be transacted.

Candidates for any public office, who were to be elected here, were
obliged to give in their names before the _comitia_ were summoned. Those
who did so, were said to _petere consulatum vel praeturam_, &c.; and they
wore a white robe called _toga candida_, to denote the purity of their
motives; on which account they were called _candidati_.

Candidates went about to solicit votes (_ambire_,) accompanied by a
nomenclator, whose duty it was to whisper the names of those whose votes
they desired; for it was supposed to be an insult not to know the name
of a Roman citizen.

_Centuria praerogativa_ was that century which obtained by ballot the
privilege of voting first.

When the _centuria praerogativa_ had been elected, the presiding
magistrate sitting in a tent (_tabernaculum_,) called upon it to come
and vote. All that century then immediately separated themselves from
the rest, and entered into that place of the Campus Martius, called
_septa_ or _ovilia_. Going into this, they had to cross over a little
bridge (_pons_;) hence the phrase _de ponte dejici_--to be deprived of
the elective franchise.

At the farther end of the _septa_ stood officers, called _diribitores_,
who handed waxen tablets to the voters, with the names of the candidates
written upon them. The voter then putting a mark (_punctus_) on the name
of him for whom he voted, threw the tablet into a large chest; and when
all were done, the votes were counted.

If the votes of a century for different magistrates, or respecting any
law, were equal when counted, the vote of the entire century was not