CURIA  , in

ancient Rome, a section of the Roman people, according to an ancient division traditionally ascribed to Romulus . He is said to have divided the people into three tribes, and to have subdivided each of these into ten curiae, each of which contained a number of families (genies) . It is more probable that the curiae were not purely artificial creations, but represent natural associations of familief, artificially regulated and distributed to serve a political•purpose . The local names of curiae which have come down to us suggest a local origin for the groups; but as membership was hereditary, the local tie doubtless grew weak with successive generations . Each curia was organized as a political and religious unit . As a political corporation it had no recognized activities beyond the command of a vote in the Comitia Curiata (see COMITIA), a vote whose nature was determined by a majority in the votes of the individual members (curiales) . But as a religious.unit the curia had more individual activity . There were, it is true, ceremonies (sacra) performed by all the curiae to Juno Curis in which each curia offered its part in a collective rite of the whole people; but each curia had also its peculiar sacra and its own special place of worship . The religious affairs of each were conducted by a priest called curio assisted by a flamen curialis . The thirty curiae must always have comprised the whole Roman people; for citizenship depended on membership of a gens (gentilitas) and every member of a gens was ipso facto attached to a curia . They therefore included plebeians as well as patricians (q.v.) from the date at which plebeians were recognized as free members of the body politic . But, just as enjoyment of the full rights of gentilitas was only very gradually granted to plebeians, so it is probable that a plebeian did not, when admitted through a gens into a curia, immediately exercise all the rights of a curialis .

It is unlikely, for instance, that plebeians voted in the Comitia Curiata at the

early date implied by the authorities; but it is probable that they acquired the right early in the republican period, and certain that they enjoyed it in Cicero's time . A plebeian was for the first time elected curio maximus in 209 B.C . The curia ceased to have any importance as a political organization some time before the close of the republican period . But its religious importance survived during the principate; for the two festivals of the Fornacalia and the Fordicidia were celebrated by the Curiales (Ovid, Fasti, ii . 527, iv . 635) . The term curia seems often to have been applied to the common shrine of the curiales, and thus to other places of assembly . Hence the ancient senate house at Rome was known as the Curia Hostilia . The curia was also adopted as a state division in a large number of municipal towns; and the term was often applied to the senate in municipal towns (see DacuRIO), probably from the name of the old senate house at Rome . AuTHoRIT ES.—Mommsen, Romisches Staatsrecht, iii. p . 89 if . (Leipzig, 1887) ; Romische Forschungen i. p .

1¢o if . (

Berlin, 1864, &c.); Clason, " Die Zusammensetzung der Curien and ihrer Comitien " (Kritische Erorterungen i., Rostock, 1871) ; Karlowa, Romische Rechtsgeschichte, i. p . 382 if . (Leipzig, 1885) ; E . Hofmann, Patricische and plebeische Curien (Wien, 1879); for the Fornacalia, &c., Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, iii. p . 197 (Leipzig, 1885); for local names of curiae, Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie, iv. p . 1822 (new edition, 1893, &c.) ; 0 . Gilbert, Geschichte and Topographic der Stadt Rom (Leipzig, 1883); for municipal curiae, Mommsen, in Ephemeris epigraphica, ii. p . 125; Schmidt, in Rheinisches Museum, xlv . (189o) p . 599 if . On the Roman comitia in general see also G .

W . Botsford, Roman Assemblies (1909) . (A . M . CL.) In

medieval Latin the word curia was used in the general sense of " court." It was thus used of " the court," meaning the royal household (aula) ; of " courts " in the sense of solemn assemblies of the great nobles summoned by the king (curiae solennes, &c.); of courts of law generally, whether developed out of the imperial or royal curia (see CURIA REGIS) or not (e.g. curia baronis, Court Baron, curia christianitatis, Court Christian) . Sometimes curia means jurisdiction, or the territory over which jurisdiction is exercised; whence possibly its use, instead of cortis, for an enclosed space, the court-yard of a house, or for the house itself (cf. the English " court," e.g . Hampton Court, and the Ger . Hof) . The word Curia is now only used of the court of Rome, as a convenient term to express the sum of the organs that make up the papal government (see CURIA ROMANA) . See Du Cange, Gloss. med. et inf . Lat . (1883), s.v .