Lex Arria Tullia de classibus et centuriis et de tribubus novis (Nova Roma)

Preamble

The senate decrees and the Nova Roman people enacts this law with the intention to make the social order of Nova Roma as Roman as possible under our modern circumstances, returning to the best and most classical practices of our ancestors, and regulating the centuries and tribes of the Nova Roman people in a manner that is most practical and most traditional at the same time. The present law replaces and annuls the lex Cornelia de punctis censualibus and the lex Cornelia de classibus et ordine equestri.

I. The tribes

Besides the old tribes of the Ramnes, Tities and Luceres, which are retained for ceremonial reasons only, all Nova Roman citizens are distributed among a number of newer tribes, formed a few centuries after the founding of ancient Rome. All taxpayer (assiduus) citizens are distributed among the so-called rural tribes, and all non-paying (proletarius or capite census) citizens are distributed among the so-called urban tribes. There shall be no other requirement and no other way to be placed into the rural tribes. As a disciplinary action, inflicted by the censores, an assiduus citizen may be re-allocated into an urban tribe.

I.A. The four urban tribes, which are reserved for capite censi, are named tribus I. Suburana, II. Palatina, III. Esquilina and IV. Collina. The fifteen rural tribes of Nova Roma shall be only the fifteen oldest Roman rural tribes, tribus V. Romilia, VI. Voltinia, VII. Voturia, VIII. Aemilia, IX. Horatia, X. Lemonia, XI. Papiria, XII. Pupinia, XIII. Menenia, XIV. Cornelia, XV. Camilia, , XVI. Fabia, XVII. Pollia, XVIII. Sergia and XIX. Galeria.

I.B. The tribe of a citizen shall be permanent. Assidui in the rural tribes shall not be moved to another tribe, except at the request of a citizen, depending on censorial approval. In case of loss of assiduus status, the name of the original tribe of the citizen must be recorded, and if the citizen restores assiduus status, the citizen’s original tribe should also be restored. If there is no record of the previous rural tribe of a citizen currently in an urban tribe, the censores have freedom to allocate this citizen to any rural type.

I.C. When distributing citizens into rural tribes, the censores must ensure that rural tribes contain an equal number of citizens, but they should not move citizens between rural tribes to equate the number of citizens in the tribes: the only method to balance the number of citizens in the rural tribes shall be the addition of new assidui to the less populated tribes.

I.D. The officers of the tribes

Each tribe shall have a varying number of officers: one or more tribuni aerarii, which office is automatically given to all citizens within the tribe who bear the rank of tribunus aerarius equestris; and one curator tribus, who shall be elected by a vote of the equites and the tribuni aerarii of the tribe, from among the equites and tribuni aerarii equestres of the tribe.

I.D.1. The duty of the tribuni aerarii is to encourage citizens to pay the Nova Roman taxes and potentially to help those who cannot pay by donating to them or finding another donor who would help them. Donating or finding a donor is not a mandatory duty, but only an encouraged activity. The term of the office of a tribunus aerarius depends on the maintenance of their status as tribunus aerarius equestris. The census points given to the tribuni aerarii for the status as tribuni aerarii equestres shall be the reward for their work.

I.D.2. The duty of the curator tribus is to direct, review, encourage, support, and in case of need, to substitute, the work of the tribuni aerarii, and to help the citizens within the tribe who need representation or help getting in touch with the officials of the republic. The term of office of the curatores tribuum is not limited to time, but their work is monitored and reviewed by the three tribuni of the old tribes, the Ramnes, Tities and Luceres: by a majority decision, the tribuni of the old, ceremonial tribes are empowered to remove any curator tribus from office if they find his or her work or behavior unsatisfactory. The curatores lose their position in case of losing their equestrian, treasury tribune equestrian or their assiduus status. Regarding their service points, the curatores tribuum shall belong under III.A.7.f of the lex Arria de censu civium aestimando, “officers of recognized corporations”, falling in the “president” category, receiving 6 CP, but they shall not receive Past Service Points for more than one year, and these Past Service Points shall be given only if they no longer hold the office.

II. The classes and centuries

There shall be twenty-three centuries, numbered from 1-23, the first being one of the equestrian centuries, then the serial numbers of the centuries increase downwards the classes from Ist-Vth Class, and ending with the century of the capite censi as the 23rd century. All taxpayer (assiduus) citizens are distributed among the five assiduus classes and their centuries, and all non-paying (proletarius) citizens are collected into one proletarius century as capite censi "infra classem" ("under the class system"), technically part of the Vth Class. Among the assidui, a selected few public equestrians with 400 or more census points are given six centuries "supra classem" ("above the class system,") but technically within the Ist Class, as described by the lex Arria Tullia de ordine equestri. There shall be no other requirement and no other way to be placed into the five classes of assiduus centuries.

II.A. The classification of the citizens

While the proletarii shall be grouped into one single century, assidui shall be classified by the amount of the census points before each election or comitia voting, according to the following scheme:

• 0-24 census points: Vth Class, distributed into 3 centuries, 1 of which is reserved for the Proletarii Capite Censi, Infra Classem

• 25-49 census points: IVth Class, distributed into 2 centuries,

• 50-74 census points: IIIrd Class, distributed into 2 centuries,

• 75-99 census points: IInd Class, distributed into 2 centuries,

• 100- census points: Ist Class, distributed into 8 regular centuries, where also Equites Privati with 400 or more census points shall be allocated without any difference, and 6 equestrian centuries where a selected group of the most distinguished Equites Publici with 400 CP or more census points shall be allocated, Supra Classem, technically within the Ist Class.

II.B. Before each comitia voting, the censores shall ensure that the following requirements are met:

II.B.1. Each century within a class must contain an equal number of citizens, with a maximum difference of one citizen in only one (or in as many as mathematically necessary) of the centuries of the class.

II.B.2. No century in a higher class may contain more citizens than any century in a lower class.

II.B.2.a. Resolving problems regarding the criteria of centurial allocations

II.B.2.a.i. If it is impossible to satisfy this requirement because there are more citizens in a certain class than the number which can be distributed according to II.A resulting in a lower number of citizens in each of its centuries than in all of the centuries of the classes which are lower than the class in question, then, if (and only if) the largest century in the higher class would contain 2 more citizens than any century in any lower class under the class in question contains, the censores are ordered to add exactly as many centuries (and no more) to the class in question which will be enough to satisfy this requirement. The censores may add only 8 extra centuries in total to Classes I-V (they can add all 8 to one class, or to several classes, but the total number of extra centuries in the entire system of all classes must not exceed 8, and the total number of centuries must not exceed 31. An extra century is defined as any century in excess to the normal number of centuries in a class). The number of equestrian centuries and of the century of the capite censi must never be increased. The extra centuries shall be numbered starting from 24, increasing the serial number downwards from Ist to Vth Class.

II.B.2.a.ii. If it is impossible to satisfy this requirement because there are not enough citizens in a certain class to form the required number of centuries with the required number of citizens, that is, more citizens than the centuries of the higher classes contain, the censores are ordered to empty as many centuries in the class in question, merging the citizens of the class into fewer, but larger centuries, as are mathematically needed, so that the centuries of the lower class in question contain more citizens than the classes above it. The emptied centuries should be reserved for future re-filling and their serial number should not be reused by other centuries. Emptying a century does not allow the number of extra centuries to be more than 8, and the total number of centuries must never be higher than 31. Class V must always contain at least one century for the capite censi and one century for the Vth Class assidui, and these two cannot be merged.

II.B.2.a.iii. If satisfying the requirement at II.B.2 by the processes described at II.B.2.a.i-ii is still not possible in a certain class, the censores are allowed to add extra centuries or to disband existing ones in any of the classes under or above the class in question, not just in the class in question, in order to establish a decreasing (or at least equal) century size in each higher class in comparison to the class immediately below it. The number of extra centuries added in total is limited to 8, as described in II.B.2.a.i.

II.B.2.a.iv. If adding or merging centuries in other classes, besides the class in question, still does not solve the problem, and if only one century remains in two classes that are next to each other in the hierarchy, the censores shall merge those two classes the merger of which can solve the problem. The censores can merge only two classes. The censores cannot merge the Ist Class with any other class.

II.B.2.a.v. If not even the merger of classes solves the problem, then the censores shall not attempt any further adjustment to the number of centuries within the classes, but they shall publish an edict calling the senate to address the problem of the unsatisfactory design of the class division system, and the comitia shall start even if the censores could not completely satisfy the requirement at II.B.2.

II.B.2.b. Procedural rules for the centurial allocations

During the process of adjusting incorrect century sizes to satisfy the requirement at II.B.2, the censores are allowed only to make the most necessary interventions and they shall not deviate from the regular number of centuries in each class as described in II.A, except to the absolutely necessary extent. They shall adhere to the prescribed number of centuries in each class as closely as possible. The following process must be observed:

II.B.2.b.i. The censores must first determine the “maximum size of an equestrian century”. In order to do this, the number of assidui having a census of 100 CP or more shall be divided by 14 (the number of all Ist Class centuries, the 8 regular and the 6 equestrian centuries). The resulting number is the “maximum size of an equestrian century”. Then the censores shall fill the 6 equestrian centuries with as many public equestrians in the Ist Class who possess at least 400 CP as fit in, using the “maximum size of an equestrian century” as the upper limit. If all public equites with at least 400 CP do not fit into the equestrian centuries, the censores must select those who will be placed into the equestrian centuries as a special honor, the rest of them must be placed into the regular Ist Class centuries. If there are not enough public equestrians with 400 CP to fill the 6 equestrian centuries, at least one person to fill one equestrian century, then the unfilled centuries shall remain empty (but they shall be reserved and their serial number shall not be reused).

II.B.2.b.ii. Next the censores shall determine the “minimum size of century”: the number of the remaining Ist Class citizens who weren’t included in the equestrian centuries shall be divided by 8 (the number of the regular Ist Class centuries), and the resulting number shall be the “minimum size of a century”. All centuries of the other classes shall contain more citizens than this minimum number, but if it’s mathematically unavoidable, a shortage of 2 citizens is allowed in a lower class century in comparison to the population of the centuries of the class above it, and similarly, an excess of 2 citizens is allowed in higher class centuries when compared with any lower class centuries , as explained in II.D.2.a.i. It is forbidden for a high-class century to contain more than 2 citizens than a century in any of all the lower classes under the class in question.

II.B.2.b.iii. Only then shall the censores fill the centuries of the rest of the classes, and add extra centuries, disband centuries or merge classes if needed, starting from the IInd Class, and going downwards to the IIIrd, and only after that to the IVth, and after that to Vth Class as the last step. In this, the following strict order of operations must be followed: First the censores must always try to solve the problem by adding extra centuries to the problematic class if it is too large, then shall they resort to emptying centuries in other classes to compensate for the excessive size of the class in question. If centuries in a class are too small, first the censores must always try to solve the problem by merging the centuries within the class, and then, if needed, by adding extra centuries to other classes. If (and only if) the previous operations did not solve the problem, are the censores allowed merge two neighboring classes.

The following detailed example demonstrates the process described in points II.B.2.a.i-v:

"There are 50 citizens in the Ist Class, among whom there are 10 public equestrians with 400 CP, to be distributed among 8 pedestrian centuries and 6 equestrian centuries. The censores devide 50 by 14, resulting in 3.57, thus the “maximum size of an equestrian century” will 4. This means that none of the 6 public equestrian centuries may contain more citizens than 4. There are 10 public equestrians with at least 400 CP, so the censores must place all of them into the 6 public equestrian centuries as equally as possible, which is mathematically possible the following way: 4 equestrian centuries contain 2-2-2-2 citizens, and 2 equestrian centuries contain 1-1 citizens (satisfying requirement II.B.1).

The other 40 Ist Class citizens shall be divided by 8, which is 5: this will be the “minimum size of a century”. They will be allocated into 8 centuries: there will be 5 citizens in each of the 8 pedestrian centuries. The censores can now turn to the IInd Class, then go downwards the classes.

The IInd Class contains 4 citizens for 2 centuries, that is, 2 citizens in each. This is not allowed according to II.B.2, because the number of citizens in Class II centuries must not be smaller than the number of citizens in the Ist Class centuries, which is 5: a difference of 2 citizens would be allowed according to II.B.2.a.i and II.B.2.b.ii, but the difference here is 3. The censores can merge the 2 centuries of Class II (as per II.B.2.a.ii), resulting in 4 citizens in 1 century, which is still not ideal, but according to II.B.2.a.ii it is allowed if there is no way to avoid it.

The censores now examine the IIIrd Class: it contains 80 citizens for 2 centuries which will result in 40-40 citizens in each century.

The IVth Class contains 26 citizens for 2 centuries that would result in 13 citizens in each, but this is not acceptable according to II.B.2., this number must be equal or higher than 40 (based on the 40 citizens in both centuries of the IIIrd Class). First the censores shall merge the two IVth Class centuries, according to the order of procedures at II.B.2.b.iii, and then Class IV will have only one century with 26 citizens, which is still far from satisfactory. Then the censores do not have another choice but to add one extra century to the IIIrd Class (according to II.B.2.a.iii), so IIIrd Class will have 3 centuries with 27, 27 and 26 citizens in them. This adds 1 surplus citizen to two of the centuries in Class III, but this is within the acceptable deviation.

Finally the censores take care of the Vth Class. There are 2 assiduus centuries in the Vth Class (the 3rd century is proletarius so it does not belong to this process), and the Vth Class contains 20 citizens for 2 centuries, so 10 citizens in each. This is against II.B.2, so the censores first have to merge them, resulting in 1 century with 20 citizens. It’s still unacceptable, because the century size in IVth Class is 26, and in the IIIrd class it is 26-27, so the censores need to add more extra centuries to the IVth and IIIrd Classes to make them have centuries that are bigger with no more than a maximum of 2 citizens. They have to re-add the one emptied century to Class IV, so it will have again 2 centuries with 13 citizens in each, and they will have to add 1 more century to IIIrd Class so it will have 4 centuries now with 20 citizens in each which is acceptable according to the rules.

The final set up the classes and centuries will thus be the following: in the Ist Class, the 6 equestrian centuries will have 4 centuries containing 2-2-2-2 citizens, and 2 centuries containing 1-1 citizens, the 8 pedestrian centuries will each contain 5 citizens. The IInd Class will have 1 century with 4 citizens. The IIIrd Class will have 4 centuries with 20 citizens in each. The IVth Class will have 2 centuries with 13 in each. The Vth Class will have 1 assiduus century with 20 citizens besides the century of the capite censi. The censores added 2 extra centuries in total, and emptied 2 in total: the final number of the centuries remains the same, but there will be a Century 24 and a Century 25 in Class III, because the extra centuries shall have their own serial number. When voting, 23 centuries will be counted, not 25, because the serial number of the extra centuries does not influence the calculation of the total number of centuries when calculating the results of voting.

If there had been 221 citizens in the IIIrd Class, the censores would have been compelled to merge Class V and IV: since the censores can introduce a maximum of 8 extra centuries, they could not increase the number of centuries in Class III beyond 10 (2 original and 8 extra). 221 divided by 10 would result in 9 centuries with 22 citizens and 1 century with 23 citizens, which would be against the rule that the largest surplus in a higher class century in comparison with a lower class century may not be more than 2 citizens: Class IV has two 13-strong centuries, V has a 20-strong century, so the highest number a IIIrd class century can have is 15. Due to this one century containing 23 in Class III, and because there are no more centuries to merge in Class V to increase that number, Class V and VI shall be merged. They have together 46 citizens. This means that the united Class IV-V can have 2 centuries, 23 citizens in each. In this set up, the Ist Class would have the 6 equestrian centuries 1-2 citizens in them, the 8 pedestrian centuries with, the IInd Class 1 century with 4, the IIIrd Class 10 centuries with 22-23, the united IVth-Vth 2 centuries with 23 in each.”

III. No comitia voting may start if the requirements in this law are not met, and the correct tribe, class and century allocations of the citizens are not updated.