Political Power in Mid-Republican Rome:
Curia or Comitium?
*TheearlierhistoryofRomepresentsuswithaveryfamiliar,inescapable,and
apparentlyinsolubleparadox.Ontheonehand,thehistoriographyofRome
beginsonlyinthelatethirdcentury,withFabiusPictor’sHistoryinGreek
and(nottobeneglected)Naevius’Bellum PunicuminLatin.AsfortheFirst
PunicWar itself, Naevius had been born early enough to serve in it. But
thenarrationofitcould,ontheotherhand,besetintheframeworkofthe
Foundation and of the earliest historyof the city, rooted in the legendary
emigrationfromTroy(fr.[]Strzelecki):
AfterAnchisescaughtsightofthebirdinApollo’stemple,
thesacredobjectswereputinorderonthetablewherethe
Penatesarelaid;
hepreparedtosacrificethebeautifulgoldenvictim.To Fabius, as the remarkable inscription of the second century..from
Taorminamakesclear(SEGXXVI,no.,fr.ii,col.A),themythicalhis-
toryofRomewentevenfurtherback,toHerakles:‘‘QuintusFabius,called
Pictorinus,aRoman,sonofGaius:whorelatedthearrivalofHeraklesinItaly
andthereturnofLanoios,anallyofAeneasandAscanius;muchlaterthere
were Romulus and Remus and the foundation of Rome by Romulus,who
wasthefirsttobeking.’’Thatistheparadox:thatwhenpeoplefinallycameto
writethehistoryofRome,a‘‘history’’stretchingbackcenturieswasappar-
*FirstpublishedasareviewarticleonKurtA.Raaflaub,ed.,Social Struggles in Archaic
Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders(),andK.-J.Hölkeskamp,Die Entste-
hung Der Nobilität: Studien zur Sozialen und Politischen Geschichte der Römischen Republik im .
Jhdt.V. Chr.(),inJRS():–.