1

THE ROMAN TRIBES: A NEW PERSPECTIVE by Steven James Abstract: This article shows how to reconstruct the Roman tribe from the Servian Constitution and shows that the Roman tribes are adhering to the doctrines of Pythagoras. As in the same manner as Romulus, the Roman population under Servius Tullius and its territory were divided into tribes.1 A tribe was a division that defined a Roman citizen by locality or district rather than by an ethnic grouping. By law, all Roman citizens as stipulated by the census, were required to disclose their inheritance, dignity, age, employment and office.2 From the census, the Romans were able to determine the number of men eligible for military service. This was accomplished by categorising the men into six classes of which classes I to V owned property.3 The classes were categorised into two groups, the classis and the infra classem.4 The classis (meaning the class), constitute those men of Class I and the cavalry, while the infra classem (meaning below the class) encompasses Class II to VI. The men of Class V are the proletarii, and the men of Class VI are the capite censi.5 Of the six classes, Dionysius and Livy detail Classes I to V as being organised into 170 voting centuries.6 In addition there were eighteen centuries of cavalry, two centuries of artificers and two centuries of musicians, bringing the total to 193 centuries. The 170 centuries of Class I to V were divided into eighty five centuries of iuniores and eighty five centuries of seniores.

Iuniores Seniores Class I 40 centuries 40 centuries Class II 10 centuries 10 centuries Class III 10 centuries 10 centuries Class IV 10 centuries 10 centuries Class V 15 centuries 15 centuries Total 85 centuries 85 centuries

Dionysius and Livy’s portray Classes I to V as homogenous voting centuries. However, Vegetius’ statement that the cavalry are legionary, “because they were joined to the legion,” and were “incorporated in it and on the same rolls,” means the cavalry belong to the same century as the infantry.7 As the cavalry vote separately from the infantry in the Century Assembly, this means for the five classes to be combined into homogenous voting centuries, the composition of the tribal century was heterogeneous. Dionysius claims the Romans had the ability to raise an army of 10,000 men or 20,000 men.8 With a century numbering 100 men, an army of 20,000 men would be organised into 200 centuries. In the Servian constitution there are two centuries of musicians, which would allocate one musician to each of the 200 centuries. This leaves ninety nine men unaccountable. However, by dividing the Classes I to V and the cavalry by the 200 musicians this will produce a heterogeneous tribal century amounting to ninety six men:

Class I 80 centuries = 8000 men ÷ 200 = 40 men Class II 20 centuries = 2000 men ÷ 200 = 10 men Class III 20 centuries = 2000 men ÷ 200 = 10 men Class IV 20 centuries = 2000 men ÷ 200 = 10 men Class V 30 centuries = 3000 men ÷ 200 = 15 men Artificers 2 centuries = 200 men ÷ 200 = 1 man Musicians 2 centuries = 200 men ÷ 200 = 1 man Cavalry 18 centuries = 1800 men ÷ 200 = 9 men Total 96 men

2

To form a tribal century of 100 men, the four missing men are allocated to Class VI. As a Roman land owner (Classes I to V) were not permitted to earn a living as a tradesman or artisan, and as the capite censi have no property, this shows the artificers belong to Class VI.9 By further assigning the artificer to Class VI, the four men in Class VI increase to five men, which conforms to Varro’s claim that the smallest unit in the Roman army was a manus, which means a ‘hand’ numbering five men.10 This leaves the musician allocated to Class V, thereby increasing Class V from fifteen men to sixteen men per tribal century:

Class I 40 men Class II 10 men Class III 10 men Class IV 10 men Class V 16 men Class VI 5 men Cavalry 9 men Total 100 men

In this manner, the tribal century was a composite of all the six classes. The heterogeneous tribal century maintained the original Romulus tribal century structure of 100 men divided into ten sections.

Romulus Century Servian Century 10 men 10 men of Class I 10 men 10 men of Class I 10 men 10 men of Class I 10 men 10 men of Class I 10 men 10 men of Class II 10 men 10 men of Class III 10 men 10 men of Class IV 10 men 16 men of Class V 10 men 5 men of Class VI 10 men 9 cavalrymen of Class I

3

The Roman Tribal Structure With the original three tribes of Romulus each consisting of ten centuries, and the army of Servius Tullius having 200 centuries, this means the Romans had the capacity to create twenty tribes at ten centuries per tribe.11 Although Dionysius and Livy show the ratio of iuniores to seniores as being equal (1:1 ratio), in actuality the ratio of iuniores to seniores in the tribal system was five parts iuniores and one part seniores. This has its origins in Pythagorean doctrine, which believed the integer six was the number of creation. As there are 20,000 iuniores, the seniores amount to one fifth of 20,000 men, thereby giving a total of 4000 seniores organised into forty tribal centuries. After distributing the forty centuries of seniores among the twenty tribes, a tribe amounts to twelve centuries (ten iuniores and two seniores).

Iuniores Seniores

It must be pointed out the twelve centuries in a tribe could have symbolically represented the twelve vultures sighted by Romulus when he founded Rome.12 In conclusion, the twenty tribes total 240 centuries (200 iuniores and 40 seniores) amounting to 24,000 men: Of the twenty tribes, four tribes, the Suburana, Esquilina, Collina and Palatina are the urban tribes and the remaining sixteen tribes are rural (rustic) tribes.13 In this manner, one urban tribes can act as an administration centre for four rural tribes.

1 TRIBE

Class Iuniores Seniores Total

Class I 400 80 480

Class II 100 20 120

Class III 100 20 120

Class IV 100 20 120

Class V 160 32 192

Class VI 50 10 60

Cavalry 90 18 108

Total 1000 200 1200

20 TRIBES

Class Iuniores Seniores Total

Class I 8000 1600 9600

Class II 2000 400 2400

Class III 2000 400 2400

Class IV 2000 400 2400

Class V 3200 640 3840

Class VI 1000 200 1200

Cavalry 1800 360 2160

Total 20000 4000 24000

4

The Century Assembly The Roman government contained two main voting assemblies, the Century Assembly, and the Curiata Assembly. The function of the Century Assembly was to elect magistrates, to enact or repeal laws, to act as judicator over cases affecting the life and privileges of a Roman citizen, and to declare war and conclude peace. When elections are declared, Dionysius remarks the populace assembled on the field of Mars (the Campus Martius), “drawn up under their centurions and their standards as in war.”14 Livy’s passage that “the census established the classes, the centuries, and that order which constitutes the ornament of Rome during peace and its strength during war,” advocates the Century Assembly was intentionally fashioned to concurrently serve both a military and a political function.15 In his account of the voting procedure, Dionysius states that the light-armed were organised into homogeneous centuries.16 This proposes that the men formed up first in their heterogeneous tribal centuries (arranged vertically), with each century composed of the six property classes and the cavalry. To form the Century Assembly (the voting body), the men were horizontally arranged according to their property class, to produce homogeneous voting centuries from the same property class. Therefore, the forty men of property Class I in each of the ten centuries of iuniores in a tribe was formed into four voting centuries each of 100 men. The number of centuries permitted to vote in the Century Assembly according to Cicero and Dionysius amounted to 193 centuries, whereas Livy records 194 centuries.17 To reconcile Livy’s total of 194 centuries with Cicero’s and Dionysius’ total of 193 centuries, Livy has erroneously included one century of Class V (termed the accensi) voting with the two centuries of musicians belonging to Class V and because of this, Livy’s tally amounts to 194 centuries. The discrepancy between the 200 army centuries and the 193 voting centuries was because when the citizens of Rome were called upon to vote, the 200 tribal centuries were first converted into 200 voting centuries:

Class I 40 men x 200 tribal centuries = 80 voting centuries Class II 10 men x 200 tribal centuries = 20 voting centuries Class III 10 men x 200 tribal centuries = 20 voting centuries Class IV 10 men x 200 tribal centuries = 20 voting centuries Class V 16 men x 200 tribal centuries = 32 voting centuries Class VI 5 men x 200 tribal centuries = 10 voting centuries Cavalry 9 men x 200 tribal centuries = 18 voting centuries

When called to vote, Dionysius has the two centuries of artificers voting with Class II, and the two centuries of musicians voting with Class IV. In contradiction to this, Livy has the two centuries of artificers voting with Class I and the two centuries of musicians, plus one century of accensi voting with Class V. The hypothesis presented here is the two centuries of artificers of Class VI vote with Class IV as per Dionysius, and the two centuries of musicians vote with Class V, as per Livy. In this manner, Class IV amounts to twenty two centuries and Class V amounts to thirty two centuries. Therefore, from the total of ten centuries of Class VI, two centuries of artificers are obligated to vote with Class IV, leaving the remaining eight centuries of Class VI with only one vote. The reason why the 200 voting centuries were then reduced to 193 homogenous voting centuries was because, as stated by Dionysius, the poorest citizens (Class VI) were only permitted one vote. In this manner, the 200 centuries are reduced to 193 voting centuries:

5

Century Assembly Class I 80 centuries 80 votes Class II 20 centuries 20 votes Class III 20 centuries 20 votes Class IV 22 centuries 22 votes (2 centuries of artificers) Class V 32 centuries 32 votes (2 centuries of musicians) Class VI 8 centuries 1 vote Cavalry 18 centuries 18 votes Total 200 centuries 193 votes

During the consular elections of 209 BC, Livy writes that the Voturia iuniores, uncertain of which candidate for the consulship to give their vote, sought guidance from the Voturia seniores.18 After the Voturia seniores gave their opinions of the character of those consuls nominated, the Voturia seniores were dismissed and the Voturia iuniores handed in their votes. For the consul elections of 214 BC and 208 BC, Livy only mentions the iuniores being selected to vote.19 In all three consular elections only the iuniores voted. There is no record of the seniores being chosen to vote. The fact the Voturia iuniores had to consult the Voturia seniores about which consul should receive their vote is an indication the seniores did not vote. On the voting rights of the seniores Ovid writes that: “Some think that the young men used to hurl the feeble old men from the bridges, in order that they themselves alone should have the vote. He who believes that after sixty years men were put to death, accuses our forefathers of a wicked crime.”20 An interpretation of Ovid’s proverb would display only the iuniores who constituted the field army believed they had the right to vote, and the seniores, who were only expected to garrison the walls of Rome, had no legitimate entitlement to vote. In conclusion, the division of the 170 centuries of Class I to V into eighty five centuries of iuniores and eighty five centuries of seniores (1:1 ratio) as specified by Dionysus and Livy is in error because further research into the Roman social and military organisation in conjunction with the Pythagorean doctrines will show that the 20,000 men that constitute the army and the 193 centuries that voted in the Century Assembly were all iuniores.

6

The Original Century Assembly When explaining the Servian constitution, Livy remarks that Servius Tullius established twelve centuries of cavalry and then Servius Tullius added an additional six centuries of cavalry, bringing the total to eighteen centuries of cavalry.21 Festus also states an additional 600 cavalry termed the sex-suffragia meaning “supporters” was created sometime after the other twelve centuries of cavalry.22 This indicates that the number of cavalry in a tribal century originally amounted to six cavalrymen per century. In order to maintain the century numbered 100 men, Class VI must originally have consisted of eight men.

Class I 40 men Class II 10 men Class III 10 men Class IV 10 men Class V 16 men Class VI 8 men Cavalry 6 men

This would mean the Century Assembly when voting would consist of the following:

Cavalry 12 centuries Class I 80 centuries Class II 20 centuries Class III 20 centuries Class IV 20 centuries Class V 32 centuries Class VI 16 centuries

In this arrangement, the classis (Class I and the cavalry) have ninety two votes and with the inclusion of the two centuries of artificers belonging to Class VI that vote with Class IV, the infra classem has ninety four votes. With this arrangement, the balance of power remains with Class II, a point made by Cicero when he describes the voting procedure of the consular elections in 44 BC.23

Cavalry 12 votes Class I 80 votes Class II 20 votes Class III 20 votes Class IV 22 votes Class V 32 votes Class VI 1 vote Total 187 votes

In conclusion, the original Century Assembly would have consisted of 187 votes, but with the inclusion of the six additional centuries of cavalry, the number of centuries increased to 193 centuries and power was returned to Class I. This could explain why the additional six centuries of cavalry were given the name “supporters,” as this was their primary role….they would always vote with Class I.

7

The Republican Tribal Century After the overthrow of Tarquinius Superbus in 509 BC, the size of the cavalry, as given for the battle of Veii in 480 BC, numbered 1200 men. This indicates the 600 sex-suffragia had been abolished. To remove the 600 sex-suffragia, the hypothesis presented here was the number of cavalry in the tribal century was decreased from nine men to six men per century. In order to maintain the century numbered 100 men, an additional three men were added to the Class VI, thereby increasing Class VI from five men to eight men.

Servian Century Republican Century Class I 40 men 40 men Class II 10 men 10 men Class III 10 men 10 men Class IV 10 men 10 men Class V 16 men 16 men Class VI 5 men 8 men Cavalry 9 men 6 men

With the removal of the six centuries of cavalry, the Century Assembly, for the second time had returned to its original 187 voting centuries. With the omission of the sex-suffragia, the cavalry was reduced from 108 men per tribe to seventy two men per tribe, while Class VI increased from sixty men per tribe to ninety six men per tribe.

1 Tribe

Class Iuniores Seniores Total

Class I 400 80 480

Class II 100 20 120

Class III 100 20 120

Class IV 100 20 120

Class V 160 32 192

Class VI 80 16 96

Cavalry 60 12 72

Total 1000 200 1200

20 Tribes

Class Iuniores Seniores Total

Class I 8000 1600 9600

Class II 2000 400 2400

Class III 2000 400 2400

Class IV 2000 400 2400

Class V 3200 640 3840

Class VI 1600 320 1920

Cavalry 1200 240 1440

Total 20000 4000 24000

8

The Clustumina Tribe In 495 BC, despite a decrease in the number of men registered in the census, the Romans created the Clustumina tribe, bringing the number of tribes to twenty one tribes.24 The number of centuries in the twenty one tribes amounts to 252 centuries (210 iuniores and 42 seniores) totalling 25,200 men:

21 Tribes

Class Iuniores Seniores Total

Class I 8400 1680 10080

Class II 2100 420 2520

Class III 2100 420 2520

Class IV 2100 420 2520

Class V 3360 672 4032

Class VI 1680 336 2016

Cavalry 1260 252 1512

Total 21000 4200 25200

With the addition of the Clustumina tribe, in order to raise 200 centuries of iuniores, one tribe was exempt from the levy by lot.25

9

The Roman Tribes & the Pythagorean Cosmos Besides acting as a voting body and a levy system for raising troops for the army, the evidence indicates the Roman tribal system was a cosmological tracking device and time clock with each century within a tribe defining the number of stadia travelled within the Pythagorean cosmos over a period of time. The two Roman writers who provide sufficient information concerning the Pythagorean cosmos are Censorinus and Pliny. Both give the distance from one sphere to another sphere as calculated in increments of a musical tone or a half tone.26

The six tones that make up the Pythagorean cosmos represent the octave (the ratio 2:1), which consists of the perfect fourth (the ratio 4:3) measuring 441,000 stadia, and the perfect fifth (the ratio 3:2) measuring 315,000 stadia. Censorinus and Pliny give the distance of the Pythagorean cosmos as measuring 756,000 stadia; with a tone measuring 126,000 stadia and a half tone 63,000 stadia.

Earth to Moon 1 tone 126,000 stadia Earth to Mercury 1½ tones 189,000 stadia Earth to Venus 2 tones 252,000 stadia Earth to Sun 3½ tones 441,000 stadia Earth to Mars 4½ tones 567,000 stadia Earth to Jupiter 5 tones 630,000 stadia Earth to Saturn 5½ tones 693,000 stadia Earth to Zodiac 6 tones 756,000 stadia

The total number of men in the tribes equates to one tenth of the Pythagorean cosmos. Therefore, as the 24,000 men in the twenty tribes are equivalent to 240,000 stadia, this positions the twenty tribes 12,000 stadia (one tribe) short of the planet Venus:

With the inclusion of the Clustumina tribe, the twenty one tribes numbering 25,200 men equates to 252,000 stadia (two tones), this brings the twenty one tribes directly in line with Venus.

10

Pythagorean Rome As Cicero was adamant that Pythagoras arrived in Southern Italy during the fourth year of the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, the Servian Constitution cannot be accredited to Servius Tullius.27 This places new light of Zonaras’ remark that nothing was done worthy of record during the reign of Servius Tullius.28 Zonaras further claims that it was Tarquinius Superbus that put forth a proposal to rearrange the tribes, and this action accords well with Dionysius’ comment that Tarquinius Superbus “confounded and abolished the customs, the laws, and the whole native form of government, by which the former kings had ordered the commonwealth and transformed his rule into an avowed tyranny.”29 In his Tusculan Disputations, Cicero acknowledges that Pythagoras’ philosophy “made its way to Rome, and that there are many things in the Roman customs that came from this same source.”30 Iamblichus is more forthcoming when he writes that the Romans “united themselves to the Pythagoras sect.”31 Evidence of Pythagorean influence in Rome can be openly found in many of the writings of the ancient historians and the early Christian writers. The Pantheon built during the reign of the emperor Hadrian was designed on the Pythagorean ratios of 3:2 (the perfect fifth) and 4:3 (the perfect fourth).32 Following Varro’s statement that the Pythagoreans upheld the principal of “all things are in pairs,” after 495 BC, the Roman tribes were created in pairs and a Roman consular army was made up of two pairs of legions, for a total of four legions.33 In regard to the Roman military system, in accordance with ten being the perfect Pythagorean number, a legion was divided into ten cohorts, and a tribal century of 100 men was divided into ten sections. It was during the reign of Tarquinius Superbus (534 BC to 509 BC) that Rome became a Pythagorean city. It was Pythagoras that instigated the creation of the census, the tribal system, the Vestal Virgins, and changed the Roman calendar from ten months to twelve months. Many of the Pythagorean doctrines that Rome’s constitution and military systems were built on involve the 6:8:9:12 musical tetrachord. Pythagoras believed the 6:8:9:12 musical tetrachord ruled the laws of the physical universe and the harmony of the spheres are the musical intervals Pythagoras believed the spheres emitted while making their orbits. This concept combined with the mathematical properties of the five elements (heaven, fire, air, earth and water) Pythagoras perceived to be the geometric building blocks of nature. It is the Pythagorean tetrachord that determines the number of Roman tribes will never exceed thirty five tribes as 6 + 8 + 9 + 12 = 35. As the Romans metaphysically identified the life of Rome in relation to the twelve ages of man, this means the Romans had a date for when Rome was first conceived, when it was born, when its age of infancy ended, when its age of youth began, manhood ended and its entry into old age. This process of maturation was closely intertwined with the Pythagorean 6:8:9:12 tetrachord, and Rome’s metaphysical death and renewal will occur at the end of a 1200 year period, a fact many of the pagans and early Christian writers were aware of. Although in its outward appearance, the Pythagorean doctrines identified with the Roman gods, the system was built on monotheism, a concept Pythagoras learnt about while studying among the Jewish scholars in Egypt. In fact many of the Pythagorean religious doctrines were copied from the Jews. For the early Christians leaders living in Rome, many of the religious principles of Pythagoras helped formulate the ideology of Christianity such as the Pythagorean concept of the Holy Trinity, the Second Coming, the Book of Revelations and the Six Ages of the World.

11

Endnotes 1 Dionysius (4 14-15), Livy (1 43), Valerius Maximus (2 2), Varro (The Latin Language 5 45), (5 56) 2 Cicero (The Republic 2 22), Dionysius (4 16-21), (7 59), (8 87), Aulus Gellius (Attic Nights 10 28 1-2), Livy (1 43-44), Plutarch (Concerning the Fortunes of the Romans 10), Valerius Maximus (6 3) 3 Dionysius (4 18) 4 Aulus Gellius (Attic Nights 6 13 1-3), Festus (100L) 5 Ennius (Annals 526-528), Aulus Gellius (Attic Nights 16 10 9-12), Saint Augustine (De Civ Dei 3 17), Valerius Maximus (2 3), Cicero (The Republic 2 22 40), Dionysius (4 18), (7 59) Livy (1 56) 6 Dionysius (4 16-21), (7 59), (8 87), Livy (1 43-44) 7 Vegetius (2 1), (2 2) 8 Dionysius (4 19) 9 Dionysius (9 25), Livy (8 20) 10 Varro (The Latin Language 5 88) 11 Dionysius (4 15-19) 12 Livy (1 7 1) 13 The sixteen rustic tribes given in alphabetical order are: the Aemilia, Camilia, Cornelia, Fabia, Galeria, Horatia, Lemonia, Menenia, Papiria, Pollia, Papiria, Pupinia, Romilia, Sergia, Veturia and Voltinia. The Romilia tribe is taken from the name Romulus and the thirty fifth tribe Quirina is taken from Romulus deified name Quirinus (god of the spear). 14 Cicero (Ad Q. Frat. 2 2), Dionysius (4 84), (7 59), The Campus Martius was a plain adjoining the Tiber on which the army assembled either to undertake military training, to assembly ready for war or to vote. 15 Livy’s (1 42) 16 Dionysius (7 59) 17 Dionysius (4 20), (7 59), Livy (1 42-43), Cicero (The Republic 2 22 39-40) assigns one century of fabri to Class I 18 Livy (26 22) 19 Livy (24 7 10), (24 9 3), (27 6) 20 Ovid (Fasti 4 632-635) 21 Livy (1 43), Varro (The Latin Language 7 4) 22 Festus (334M and 452L) 23 Cicero (Leg. 344), (Philippics 2 82-83) 24 Dionysius (7 64 6), Livy (2 21) 25 Livy (4 46), Valerius Maximus (6 3 4) 26 Censorinus (The Birthday Book 13 2-5), Pliny (Natural History 2 19 21) 27 Cicero (On the Commonwealth 2 15), (Tusculan Disputations 1 16), (4 1-2), (The Republic 2 15, 28), (De Orat 2, 37, 154) 28 Zonaras (2 8-9) 29 Dionysius (4 41 2) 30 Cicero (Tusculan Disputations On the Passions 4 1-2) 31 Iamblichus (On the Pythagorean Life 34) 32 The Iconography of Sacred Space: A Suggested Reading of the Meaning of the Roman Pantheon Author(s): Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 19, No. 38 (1998), pp. 21-42 33 Varro (The Latin Language 5 11-13)