M. Tullius Cicero, De Lege Agraria, Charles Duke Yonge (Translator), 27

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[27] Now, because you have preserved the comitia centuriata and tributa, the curiata have remained only for the sake of the auspices. But this tribune of the people, because he saw that no man could possibly have any authority conferred on him without the authority of the burghers ¹ or of the commonalty, confirmed that authority which he proposed to give by the curiata comitia, with which you have nothing to do, and took away the comitia tributa which belonged to you. So, though your ancestors intended you to decide at two comitia about each magistrate, this man, so attached to the interests of the people, did not leave the people the power of even one comitia.

De Lege Agraria. M. Tullius Cicero. Charles Duke Yonge (Translator). London. 1856.

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Current edition Perseus

On the Agrarian Law (English) (Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 2. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Bell, 1856.)

Editions (1)

De Lege Agraria Perseus (Cicero. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes, Volume 4. Clark, Albert Curtis, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909.) — 27 focus

[27] nunc, Quirites, prima illa comitia tenetis, centuriata et tributa, curiata tantum auspiciorum causa remanserunt. hic autem tribunus plebis quia videbat potestatem neminem iniussu populi aut plebis posse habere, curiatis eam comitiis quae vos non initis confirmavit, tributa quae vestra erant sustulit. ita cum maiores binis comitiis voluerint vos de singulis magistratibus iudicare, hic homo popularis ne unam quidem populo comitiorum potestatem reliquit.

Notes on the current edition

On the Agrarian Law

1. The Latin terms are populus and plebs. For the best account of the populus to be found in a small space, see Smith's Dict. Ant. p. 726, v. Patricii; and consult the same admirable book, p. 765, v. Plebes, or plebs. The word potestas, which I have translated “authority,” means strictly only civil authority, in opposition to imperium, military command.

M. Tullius Cicero De Lege Agraria 27

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

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