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While the plebeians each belonged to a particular curia, only patricians could actually vote in the Curiate Assembly. The Plebeian Council was originally organized around the office of the Tribunes of the Plebs in 494 BC. Plebeians probably met in their own assembly prior to the establishment of the office of the Tribune of the Plebs, but this ...
No contemporary definition of nobilis or novus homo (a person entering the nobility) exists; Mommsen, positively referenced by Brunt (1982), said the nobiles were patricians, patrician whose families had become plebeian (in a conjectural transitio ad plebem), and plebeians who had held curule offices (e.g., dictator, consul, praetor, and curule ...
This gave the plebeian tribunes, who presided over the Plebeian Council, a positive character for the first time. Before these laws were passed, tribunes could only interpose the sacrosanct of their person (intercessio) to veto acts of the Senate, assemblies, or magistrates. It was a modification to the Valerian law in 449 BC which first ...
The Concilium was notable in that it was the first to represent all plebeians, not just those in the city. [35] It was also one of few assemblies of its time to employ group voting, in which each tribe of plebeians agreed on a single vote to cast, similar to the United States Electoral College and some processes of English Parliament. [36]
While plebeians (commoners) could participate in this assembly, only the patricians (the Roman aristocrats) could vote. Since the Romans used a form of direct democracy, citizens, and not elected representatives, voted before each assembly. As such, the citizen-electors had no power, other than the power to cast a vote.
However, they functioned very much like magistrates of the Roman state. They could convene the concilium plebis, which was entitled to pass legislation affecting the plebeians alone (plebiscita), and beginning in 493 BC to elect the plebeian tribunes and aediles. From the institution of the tribunate, any one of the tribunes of the plebs was ...
In the early Republic, before the start of reforms, laws passed by the Plebeian Council applied not to all Romans, but only to plebeians, because only plebeians could vote in the council. But after the lex Valeria-Horatia in 449 BC, plebiscites could become binding to all Romans, and not just plebeians, if they were ratified by the Senate. [4]
The plebeians had created this body as their own assembly where they could debate their own issues during their first rebellion, the first plebeian secession (494 BC). The patricians were excluded from the Plebeian Council. The Council could also vote on laws which concerned the plebeians.