The manner how the Comitia curiata, centuriata or tributa
were called, during the time of the commonwealth, to the
suffrage, was by lot: the curia, century, or tribe, whereon the
first lot fell, being styled principium, or the prerogative; and
the other curioe, centuries or tribes, whereon the second, third,
and fourth lots, etc., fell, the jure vocatoe. From henceforth
not the first classes, as in the times of Servius, but the
prerogative, whether curia, century, or tribe, came first to the
suffrage, whose vote was called omen proerogativum, and seldom
failed to be leading to the rest of the tribes. The jure vocatoe,
in the order of their lots, came next: the manner of giving
suffrage was, by casting wooden tablets, marked for the
affirmative or the negative, into certain urns standing upon a
scaffold, as they marched over it in files, which for the
resemblance it bore was called the bridge. The candidate, or
competitor, who had most suffrages in a curia, century, or tribe,
was said to have that curia, century, or tribe; and he who had
most of the curioe, centuries, or tribes, carried the magistracy.

These three places being premised, as such upon which there
will be frequent reflection, I come to the narrative, divided
into two parts, the first containing the institution, the second
the constitution of the commonwealth, in each whereof I shall
distinguish the orders, as those which contain the whole model,
from the rest of the discourse, which tends only to the
explanation or proof of them.

In the institution or building of a commonwealth, the first
work, as that of builders, can be no other than fitting and