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Elementary Particle Physics
This modern introduction to particle physics equips students with the skills
needed to develop a deep and intuitive understanding of the physical theory
underpinning contemporary experimental results.
The fundamental tools of particle physics are introduced and accompanied
by historical profiles charting the development of the field. Theory and
experiment are closely linked, with descriptions of experimental techniques
used at CERN accompanied by detail on the physics of the Large Hadron
Collider and the strong and weak forces that dominate proton collisions.
Recent experimental results are featured, including the discovery of the Higgs
boson. Equations are supported by physical interpretations, and end-of-
chapter problems are based on data sets from a range of particle physics
experiments including dark matter, neutrino, and collider experiments. A
solutions manual for instructors is available online. Additional features
include worked examples throughout, a detailed glossary of key terms,
appendices covering essential background material, and extensive references
and further reading to aid self-study, making this an invaluable resource for
advanced undergraduates in physics.
ANDREW J. LARKOSKI is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Reed College. He
earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University working at SLAC National
Accelerator Laboratory and has held postdoctoral research appointments at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Andrew is a
leading expert on the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and has
won the LHC Theory Initiative Fellowship and the Wu-Ki Tung Award for
Early-Career Research on QCD.
Elementary Particle Physics
An Intuitive Introduction

ANDREW J. LARKOSKI
Reed College
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom
One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India
79 Anson Road, #06-04/06, Singapore 079906

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.


It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning,
and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108496988
DOI: 10.1017/9781108633758
© Andrew J. Larkoski 2019
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant
collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2019
Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd, Padstow Cornwall
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Larkoski, Andrew J., 1985– author.
Title: Elementary particle physics : an intuitive introduction / Andrew J. Larkoski.
Description: Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019003347| ISBN 9781108496988 (hardback ; alk. paper) | ISBN 1108496989
(hardback ; alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Particles (Nuclear physics)
Classification: LCC QC793.2 .L37 2019 | DDC 539.7/2–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019003347
ISBN 978-1-108-49698-8 Hardback
Additional resources for this publication at www.cambridge.org/larkoski
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external
or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on
such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
For Patricia and Henry
Contents

Preface
Overview of This Book
Acknowledgements

1 Introduction
1.1 A Brief History of Forces
1.2 The Standard Model of Particle Physics
1.3 The Large Hadron Collider
1.4 Units of Particle Physics and Dimensional Analysis
Exercises

2 Special Relativity
2.1 Symmetries and Their Consequences
2.1.1 Rotational Invariance
2.1.2 Relativistic Invariance
2.1.3 Applying Relativity
2.2 Relativistic Wave Equations
2.2.1 The Klein–Gordon Equation
2.2.2 The Dirac Equation
2.2.3 Electromagnetism
Exercises

3 A Little Group Theory


3.1 Groups as Symmetries
3.2 The Rotation Group
3.2.1 Two-Dimensional Rotations: SO(2)
3.2.2 Three-Dimensional Rotations: SO(3)
3.2.3 SO(3), SU(2), and Spin
3.3 Isospin and the Quark Model
3.3.1 Isospin
3.3.2 What is a “Particle”?
3.3.3 The Quark Model
3.4 Why the Photon Has Two Polarizations
Exercises

4 Fermi’s Golden Rule and Feynman Diagrams


4.1 Invitation: The Barn
4.2 Scattering Systematics
4.2.1 The Scattering Cross Section
4.2.2 Fermi’s Golden Rule
4.3 Feynman Diagrams
4.3.1 Diagrams in Physics: Circuits
4.3.2 Diagrams in Physics: Electron–Muon Scattering
4.3.3 Feynman Diagrams: Summary
4.3.4 Feynman Diagrams: Caveat Emptor
Exercises

5 Particle Collider Experiment


5.1 Before Collision: Particle Acceleration
5.2 At Collision: Particle Detection
5.3 Detector Coordinates
5.4 Detector Components
5.4.1 Tracking System
5.4.2 Calorimetry
5.4.3 Muon System
5.4.4 Unobservable Neutrinos
5.5 After Collision: Triggering and Data Acquisition
5.6 Statistical Analyses
5.6.1 Statistical Uncertainties
5.6.2 Derivation of Poisson Distribution
5.6.3 Significance and Discovery
Exercises

6 Quantum Electrodynamics in e+e− Collisions


6.1 e+e− → μ+μ−
6.1.1 Solutions to the Massless Dirac Equation
6.1.2 Helicity Configurations
6.1.3 Calculating the Cross Section
6.1.4 Inclusive Cross Sections
6.1.5 Exclusive Cross Sections
6.2 e+e− → Hadrons
6.2.1 Inclusive Hadronic Cross Sections
6.2.2 Properties of the Inclusive Cross Section: Color
6.2.3 Properties of the Inclusive Cross Section: Spin
Exercises

7 Quarks and Gluons


7.1 Crossing Symmetry
7.1.1 Electron–Quark Scattering
7.2 Deeply Inelastic Scattering
7.2.1 Physical Interpretation of Bjorken Scaling
7.3 Three-Jet Events
7.3.1 The Glue That Binds the Proton
7.3.2 External Gluon Wavefunction
7.3.3 Fermion Propagator
7.3.4 The Cross Section for e+e− → qqg
7.3.5 Tests of a Spin-1 Gluon
7.4 Spinor Helicity
Exercises

8 Quantum Chromodynamics
8.1 Color Symmetry
8.2 Non-Abelian Gauge Theory
8.2.1 Covariant Derivative
8.2.2 Connections and Curvature
8.3 Consequences of Quantum Chromodynamics
8.3.1 Masslessness of the Gluon
8.3.2 Gluon Degrees of Freedom
8.3.3 Self-Interaction of the Gluon
8.3.4 The Running Coupling and Asymptotic Freedom
8.3.5 Low-Energy QCD
Exercises

9 Parton Evolution and Jets


9.1 Scale Transformations
9.1.1 Scale Invariance of QCD
9.1.2 Fractals and Scale Invariance
9.2 Parton Evolution
9.2.1 Collinear Divergences in QCD
9.2.2 Energy Dependence of Parton Distributions
9.2.3 Physical Interpretation of the DGLAP Equations
9.3 Jets
9.3.1 All-Orders Predictions: Thrust
Exercises

10 Parity Violation
10.1 Decay of the Neutron
10.2 Discrete Lorentz Transformations
10.2.1 Parity Transformations
10.2.2 Time Reversal and Charge Conjugation
10.2.3 CPT Theorem
10.3 Parity Violation in Nuclear Decays
10.3.1 Consequences of Parity Violation
10.4 The V − A Theory
10.4.1 Decay of the Muon
Exercises
11 The Mass Scales of the Weak Force
11.1 Problems with the V − A Theory
11.2 Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking
11.2.1 Quantum Mechanics Analogy
11.2.2 Goldstone’s Theorem for the Mexican Hat
Potential
11.2.3 Higgs Mechanism in Superconductivity
11.3 Electroweak Unification
11.3.1 Properties of the Weak Force Carriers
11.3.2 Spontaneous Breaking of Electroweak Symmetry
11.3.3 The Broken Weak Theory
11.3.4 Four Predictions of the Broken Weak Theory
Exercises

12 Consequences of Weak Interactions


12.1 Flavor Mixing in the Weak Interactions
12.2 The Weak Interactions in the Quark Sector: CP Violation
12.2.1 Weak Interactions of Charged Leptons
12.2.2 Weak Interactions of Quarks
12.2.3 CP Violation of the Weak Interactions
12.2.4 Fermion Masses in the Standard Model and Tests
of Unitarity
12.2.5 CP Violation and the Early Universe: Sakharov
Conditions
12.3 The Weak Interactions in the Lepton Sector: Neutrino
Mixing
12.3.1 Neutrino Oscillations
12.3.2 Neutrino Oscillation Measurement
12.3.3 Neutrino Astrophysics
Exercises

13 The Higgs Boson


13.1 Searching for the Higgs Boson at LEP
13.1.1 e+e− → Z
13.1.2 e+e− → H
13.1.3 e+e− → ZH
13.2 Searching for the Higgs Boson at Tevatron and LHC
13.2.1 pp → H
13.2.2 pp → H → W+W−
13.2.3 The Golden Channels: pp → H → γγ and pp → H
→ 4ℓ
13.3 Properties of the Higgs Boson
13.3.1 Scalar Potential Coupling λ
13.3.2 Coupling Strength Proportional to Mass
13.3.3 Spin-0
Exercises

14 Particle Physics at the Frontier


14.1 Neutrino Masses
14.2 Dark Matter
14.3 Higgs Self-Coupling
14.4 End of Feynman Diagrams?
14.4.1 Failure of Convergence of Feynman Diagrams
14.4.2 More Efficient Calculational Techniques
14.5 The Future of Collider Physics
14.5.1 International Linear Collider (ILC)
14.5.2 Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC)
14.5.3 Future Circular Collider (FCC)
Exercises

Appendix A Useful Identities

Appendix B Review of Quantum Mechanics

Appendix C Particle Physics Jargon Glossary


Bibliography
Index
Preface

Not only God knows, I know, and by the end of the semester, you will know.
Sidney Coleman
Particle physics is a subject that strikes both awe and fear into students of
physics. Awe because particle physics is extremely far-reaching: its realm
ranges from the inner workings of atoms to the mechanisms for fusion in the
center of stars to the earliest moments of the universe. From a small number
of fundamental principles, all of these phenomena can be consistently
described and understood. On the other hand, fear because particle physics is
notorious for being a mathematically dense and abstract topic, and one for
which its experimental validation is often reduced to interpreting obscure
plots. Fancy mathematics can be mistaken for physical rigor, and a
mathematics-heavy approach to particle physics often hides a much simpler
structure.
Textbooks on particle physics for undergraduates are often organized
historically, which can add to confusion. Throughout the twentieth century,
more and more was learned about the subatomic world, but the way it
progressed was never linear. For example, hundreds of particles that we now
call hadrons were discovered in the mid-twentieth century, with no clear
organizing principle at the time. It wasn’t until the development of the strong
force, quantum chromodynamics (QCD), in the 1970s that an explanation of
all of these hadrons as combinations of only five fundamental particles, the
quarks, was firmly established. Only after introducing this zoo of particles
would a textbook that proceeds historically identify the simple principles
underlying this structure. The why should take precedence over how physical
phenomena manifest themselves, and a book that builds from the ground up
can’t proceed historically.
Additionally, particle physics is very much an active field of physics with
new data and discoveries. A modern book on particle physics needs to
include discussions of recent results, the most prominent of which is the
discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012.
However, to describe and motivate why the discovery of the Higgs was so
important requires significant background, covering topics ranging from
electroweak symmetry breaking to the dynamics of proton scattering,
quantum loops in Feynman diagrams, particle detector experiments, and
statistical analyses, among others. Therefore, in some sense, there simply
isn’t space in a modern particle physics textbook to describe every major
result since the 1920s. By the end of the course a student should be able to
understand almost any plot produced by the experiments at the LHC.
This book was born out of the particle physics class at Reed College,
which I taught during the spring semester of 2017. The twin goals of this
textbook are to be up-to-date and to build concepts from the ground up, based
firmly on physical intuition. This book provides an intuitive explanation for
the physics being introduced. This is necessarily an ahistorical approach,
which has consequences for how topics are introduced and motivated as
compared to other textbooks. With a modern viewpoint, we can identify past
results and predictions that had an outsized impact on the field as a whole.
For example, interpreting results at the LHC requires use of proton collision
simulations, referred to as parton shower programs. The physical basis for the
parton shower is the DGLAP splitting functions, which were developed in the
1970s as a consequence of QCD. Thus it is vital for interpretation of results
from the LHC to understand and appreciate the DGLAP splitting functions.
Chapter 9 covers this topic.
A potential drawback of this approach is that it is not encyclopedic. Any
undergraduate textbook on particle physics suffers from this, however. A full
mathematical treatment of particle physics requires quantum field theory,
which is (at least) a year-long graduate-level course. So, there will be some
things for which the motivation is less than ideal. The most prominent of
these is the construction and calculation of Feynman diagrams, which are
motivated in this book in analogy to circuit diagrams, but their mathematical
justification lies well beyond such a course. Similarly, to understand all of the
intricacies of experimental measurements requires years of actually working
on the experiments. Only then can you understand where the systematic
uncertainties come from, the limitations of your detector, and all of the blood,
sweat, and tears that went into a measurement, which is sometimes just a
single number.
Overview of This Book
This textbook is organized into three broad themes:

The Tools of Particle Physics


The Strong Force
The Weak Force.

I don’t claim to have invented this organization; at least two other modern
particle physics textbooks use a similar organizational scheme. However, I do
think that this is the correct approach for such a course. Of the four
fundamental forces, three are relevant for particle physics (strong, weak,
electromagnetism), and of those three, the strong and weak forces have no
long-distance classical counterpart. So, it is natural, then, to focus on them,
especially because their phenomena dominate the description of the physics
probed at the LHC.

The Tools of Particle Physics


The first five chapters cover the tools of particle physics and are material that
I think is required in such a course. Chapter 1 sets the stage, introducing the
Standard Model of Particle Physics and the LHC to frame the content of the
rest of the book. Additionally, just like at the beginning of an introductory
physics course, appropriate units to describe particle physics phenomena are
introduced. Chapter 2 is a review of special relativity and relativistic wave
equations from a Lagrangian viewpoint. The Lorentz invariance of the wave
equations is verified mathematically, as well as understood physically, by
demonstrating that total angular momentum of the Klein–Gordon and Dirac
Lagrangians is 0. Perhaps the fundamental guiding principle of particle
physics is Noether’s theorem, which provides the connection of group
symmetries and conservation laws. Chapter 3 introduces groups and their
importance in particle physics, starting from identification of the symmetries
of an equilateral triangle. This chapter also motivates Hermitian operators in
quantum mechanics from probability conservation and the way this
framework enables a concrete definition of what a “particle” is. Fermi’s
Golden Rule and Feynman diagrams are introduced in Chapter 4. While this
chapter will provide enough detail for students to perform calculations of
Feynman diagrams and construct cross sections, my goal here is to de-
emphasize Feynman diagrams somewhat, as compared to some other
textbooks. Feynman diagrams are particle physics, but particle physics is
much more than just Feynman diagrams. Chapter 5 introduces the LHC and
its two largest experiments, ATLAS and CMS. Detailed discussions of proton
acceleration, proton collision, detector components, and statistics are
provided to present students with the tools to understand experimental results.
Similar topics are not often covered in other books.

The Strong Force


Chapters 6 through 9 cover the phenomena of the strong force, QCD. Chapter
6 is the introduction to QCD, where electron–positron collisions are studied
in detail. This chapter begins with a detailed study of e+e− → μ+μ− scattering
within quantum electrodynamics (QED). This provides a framework for
discussion of the importance of inclusive cross sections and evidence for both
the three colors of QCD as well as the spin-1/2 nature of quarks. With
evidence for quarks established, Chapter 7 introduces partons and Bjorken
scaling as evidence for point-like, nearly free constituents of the proton. A
detailed interpretation of Bjorken scaling is provided by Fourier transforming
to position space, where its consequences become clear. This chapter also
discusses evidence for the gluon from three-jet events, in analogy to photon
emission in QED. These pieces then set the stage for Chapter 8 in which the
three colors of QCD, the spin-1 gluon, and the spin-1/2 quarks are put
together in a consistent theoretical framework. Physical arguments are
provided to augment the geometrical construction of QCD and non-Abelian
gauge theories in general. This chapter also surveys some of the more non-
trivial consequences of QCD, of which the most profound is the property of
asymptotic freedom. The discussion of QCD ends in Chapter 9 with its most
shocking prediction: the formation of high-energy, collimated streams of
particles called jets. The prediction of jets is guided by the observation that
QCD at high energies is approximately scale invariant, which has
consequences for parton evolution manifested in the DGLAP equations. Very
uniquely, this chapter also has a simple, explicit, all-orders prediction of jet
structure for an observable in electron–positron collisions called thrust.
The Weak Force
The final third of the book, Chapters 10 through 14, is devoted to the weak
force. Chapter 10 invites the reader to study this force with the observation of
parity violation in nuclear decays, from detailed discussions of the Wu
experiment and its motivation. The V − A theory is introduced as a
phenomenological model of parity violation and the decay rate of the muon is
calculated. Numerous idiosyncrasies of this parity-violating interaction are
mentioned in Chapter 11. These motivate spontaneous symmetry breaking
and the Higgs mechanism, which is introduced by analogy with similar
situations in quantum mechanics. By connecting electromagnetism with
charged and neutral currents observed in electron–positron scattering, we are
able to construct the electroweak theory and its pattern of symmetry breaking.
Consequences of the weak force for properties of the fermions of the
Standard Model is the topic of Chapter 12. The mechanism of flavor mixing
and CP violation in the quark sector is provided in detail and motivated by
non-commutation of mass and flavor operators. Neutrino oscillation is also
introduced, but no apology is made for imprecision of the calculation. When
and why neutrinos oscillate was only relatively recently clearly elucidated
and involves ideas of entanglement, interference, and decoherence. Chapter
13 is the culmination of the book with the discovery of the Higgs boson. This
is also one of the few places in this book where a historical organization is
presented, with the method of discovery of the Higgs motivated from
searches at the Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP), to early searches at
Tevatron and LHC, and finally to its discovery in 2012. A review of the
current established properties of the Higgs closes the chapter. As with any
book on particle physics, the final chapter, Chapter 14, looks forward to the
open questions and where the field will go in the future.

Key Features
Worked Examples and Supplementary Appendices
Along with the intuitive discussion of topics, each chapter contains worked
examples focused around understanding a relevant measurement. There is
really nothing as satisfying in physics as seeing a prediction which started
from some very simple assumptions validated by concrete data. The goal of
the worked examples is both to show the student the application of these
ideas and to share the excitement of working in the field of particle physics,
where experiment and theory are so closely connected. Additionally,
appendices provide background or summary information as a quick and easy
reference for students. The appendices cover a background of quantum
mechanics (likely from a perspective students haven’t seen), details about
Dirac δ-functions, Fourier transforms, a collection of results from the main
body of the text, and a bibliography of suggested reading for delving further.
Key particle physics terms are emphasized in bold throughout the text, and a
glossary of a substantial number of the terms is also provided, as significant
jargon is used in particle physics.
Exercises on Recent Results
The exercises at the end of each chapter cover a broad range of applications
to test the student’s understanding of the topic of the particular chapter. Most
of the exercises are relatively standard calculations for the student, but two or
three of the exercises are in much more depth and involve studying data from
experiment in the context of the material of the chapter. This broadens and
deepens the topics covered in the worked examples, and exposes students to
relevant experiments and results that couldn’t be covered within the main
text. Examples of these exercises include analyzing dark matter mass and
interaction rate bounds, estimating the mass of the top quark from its decay
products, studying LHC event displays, a simple extraction of quark parton
distribution functions from data for the Z boson rapidity, lowest-order
predictions for jet masses at the LHC, predicting neutrino scattering rates in
the IceCube experiment, validating the left-handed nature of the top quark
decay, and estimating backgrounds in searches for the Higgs boson decay.
Additionally, the final exercise in each chapter is the statement of an open
problem in particle physics, intended to expose the student to some of the big
questions of the field.
Historical Profiles
It is sometimes easy to forget that physics is a human endeavor done by
people. I have included historical profiles throughout the text to provide
context and a bit of humanity to the topic. I have highlighted scientists who
contributed significantly to the subject at hand, but have attempted to focus
on those people who haven’t been overly deified (e.g., not Fermi or
Feynman). Historical profiles include mini-biographies of Emmy Noether (p.
16), Paul Dirac (p. 34), Fabiola Gianotti (p. 127), Mary Gaillard and Sau Lan
Wu (p. 188), Gerardus’t Hooft (p. 235), Guido Altarelli (p. 258), Chien-
Shiung Wu (p. 291), Helen Quinn (p. 367), and Benjamin Lee (p. 407). A
few “legendary” particle physics stories are presented, including the
etymology of the barn unit of cross section (p. 81), the origin of penguin
diagrams (p. 337), and the Higgs boson discovery announcement (p. 417).
Extensive In-Text Referencing
I have also worked to provide extensive (and where possible, exhaustive)
references to the original literature for every topic covered in this book.
References are provided as footnotes, so that one can immediately identify
the paper without flipping back and forth to the end of the chapter or end of
the book. I have also collected all in-text references in the bibliography for
ease of searching. The only way that the referencing could be as thorough as
it is is through innumerable searches of my own on InSpire
(http://inspirehep.net) and arXiv (http://arxiv.org). InSpire is an
online database of essentially every publication relevant to particle physics in
history. The reference format used in this book is that provided by InSpire,
which is ubiquitous in technical papers on particle physics. arXiv is the
preprint archive for particle physics (and now many more fields), where
scientists post their completed papers before journal publication. It enables
the rapid transmission of ideas, and every paper on particle physics written in
the past 25 years is available there for free.

How to Use this Book


My class at Reed College had about 24 students in it with roughly an equal
mix of juniors and seniors (third- and fourth-year undergraduates). This was
an interesting challenge for a subject like particle physics: the seniors had
completed classes on electromagnetism and quantum mechanics, while the
juniors were taking quantum mechanics concurrently. This required a shift in
the presentation of the material focusing on analogies and physical intuition,
hence the motivation for this book. The level of the course seemed to strike a
happy medium in which both sets of students were satisfied with the level of
the lectures. That said, I do feel that a course on particle physics requires
students to have completed at least a first semester of electromagnetism and a
sophomore-level (second-year) modern physics course. Not having previous
exposure to quantum mechanics or classical field theory severely restricts the
breadth of topics that can be covered.
In the semester-long course of 26 80-minute lectures, I succeeded in
introducing most of the topics covered in this book. However, that isn’t to say
that much time was spent on them. For example, the treatment of neutrino
oscillations in class consisted of a single lecture, and most of that time was
used to perform the standard two-state interference calculation. To
completely and honestly motivate the reason for neutrino oscillation would
require at least one more lecture on the topic, which may not be possible
depending on time constraints and interests of the instructor. Nevertheless, I
do think that topics covered in every chapter of this book could fill a course,
regardless of the time available.
That said, some topics are more important than others. As mentioned
earlier, I see the first five chapters of this book as required. Units, special
relativity, group theory, Feynman diagrams, and experimental techniques are
fundamental to being able to speak the language of particle physics. A
substantial number of experimental measurements are provided in these first
chapters so that, even if the course does not cover much more, students would
see modern results. For a course with limited time, a number of topics in the
strong and weak force sections could be skipped. For the strong force, I view
Chapter 6, Chapter 7 through the beginning of Section 7.3, and the
consequences of QCD discussed in Section 8.3 as required. If there’s a bit
more time in the course, then covering one of the parton evolution or jets
topics in Chapter 9 would add significant content. For the weak force, I view
Chapter 10, the first half of Chapter 11, and Section 13.2 as required. With a
bit more time, a course could cover one of the topics of Chapter 12 (quark
mixing or neutrino oscillations), or add more details about the Higgs boson
discovery in Chapter 13.
Finally, I have attempted to keep the prose light and the enthusiasm high
because, after all, this is physics and it should be fun. I hope students can
enjoy reading this book and gain an appreciation for this beautiful subject.
Acknowledgements
First, I want to thank the 2017 Physics 366 class at Reed College for their
enthusiasm for particle physics and especially their feedback on the original
exercises for that course. Much has improved in going from hand-written
lectures to typeset chapters, and these students were the original motivation.
The existence of this textbook and the exposition contained in it are due to
a large number of people who have influenced the way I think about particle
physics. I have had the exceptional fortune to have excellent mentors and
advisors throughout my career who were patient enough to answer my
questions and provide detailed explanations. I thank Brian Batell, David Ellis,
Stephen Ellis, Matthew Schwartz, Iain Stewart, Matthew Strassler, Jesse
Thaler, and especially my Ph.D. advisor Michael Peskin for their guidance.
As a graduate student I benefitted from amazing fellow students at Stanford
with whom I had numerous illuminating discussions, reading groups, and
seminar series. I wish to especially thank Camille Boucher-Veronneau,
Kassahun Betre, Randall Cotta, Martin Jankowiak, Jeffrey Pennington, and
Tomas Rube.
The intuitive approach of the explanations in this book is due to several
influences. As an undergraduate, I worked as a teaching assistant for the
Physics Education Group at the University of Washington, where physics
tutorials were developed. I thank Mila Kryjevskaia, Peter Shaffer, and
MacKenzie Stetzer for their guidance, helping me focus on the fundamental
issues and work to a qualitative explanation of physical phenomena. In
graduate school, I benefitted from excellent courses on particle physics taught
by Savas Dimopoulos and Michael Peskin. While their teaching styles
differed widely, I have attempted to balance Savas’s heuristic approach with
Michael’s “shut up and calculate” approach in this book. I owe a huge debt of
gratitude to Patricia Burchat, for whom I was a teaching assistant in her
undergraduate courses on quantum mechanics and particle physics. Patricia’s
excellent courses were the first time that I taught particle physics to
undergraduates and were some of the first physics classes at Stanford to
employ physics by inquiry techniques. I also thank Lauren Tompkins and
Paul Simeon for discussions and sharing of materials from the particle
physics class that Lauren taught at Stanford in 2017.
Getting this book to completion was due to a number of people. I thank my
colleague Joel Franklin at Reed College for suggesting that I turn my lecture
notes into a book and publish it. The writing benefitted from my participation
in the Stanford Writers’ Group, and especially from comments from Priscilla
Burgess. Bruce Van Buskirk at Reed College was very helpful in addressing
questions that I had about copyrights. I thank Fred Olness for inviting me to
lecture at the 2017 CTEQ Summer School, where I developed the
explanation for the resummation of thrust presented in Chapter 9. I thank my
editors at Cambridge University Press, Nicholas Gibbons and Heather Brolly,
for their comments and criticisms on the manuscript, and especially to
Heather for her assistance in making the final product so polished.
My education in particle physics and particularly in QCD has benefitted
from outstanding long-time collaborators. I thank Christopher Frye, Simone
Marzani, Gavin Salam, Matthew Schwartz, Peter Skands, Gregory Soyez,
Iain Stewart, Kai Yan and especially Ian Moult, Duff Neill, and Jesse Thaler.
In a field like QCD where data are rich, my collaborators taught me that
precision is of the utmost importance because no one can fool Nature.
There are a number of people to thank for results reprinted throughout this
book. I thank David Kaplan for permission to reprint the representation of the
Standard Model in Fig. 1.1; I thank Scott Hertel for permission to reprint the
LUX dark matter bound plot in Fig. 2.3; I thank Melissa Franklin for
permission to reprint the CDF top quark discovery plot in Fig. 5.11; I thank
Leslie Rosenberg for permission to reprint the thrust angle distribution in Fig.
6.5; I thank Dmitri Denisov for permission to reprint the Z boson rapidity
spectrum from in Fig. 7.2; I thank Raymond Frey for permission to reprint
the three-jet energy fractions from SLD in Fig. 7.4; I thank Stanley Brodsky
for permission to reprint an excerpt about jets from a paper in the footnote on
page 263; I thank Ignacio Taboada for permission to reprint results from
IceCube neutrino measurements in Figs. 10.4 and 10.5; and I thank Karsten
Heeger for permission to reprint neutrino oscillation results from Daya Bay in
Fig. 12.3.
I also thank several people for clarification about history or context
presented in this book. I thank Joel Walker for a careful reading, finding
some typos, and suggestions for improving explanation throughout the book;
I thank Benjamin Nachman for suggesting the reorganization of the sections
on particle tracking and calorimetry in Chapter 5 to emphasize ionization in
the tracker; I thank James Bjorken for a brief history of the strong force and
searches for jets before asymptotic freedom and the “November Revolution”;
I thank Deepak Kar for urging me to clarify what is actually measured in
studies of the underlying event in Exercise 9.7; and I thank Mary James for
the relationship of the physicists mentioned in the Historical Profile in Box
11.1.
In writing and describing the physics presented in this book, I relied on a
number of well-worn references. Michael Peskin and Daniel Schroeder’s An
Introduction to Quantum Field Theory and Matthew Schwartz’s Quantum
Field Theory and the Standard Model were particularly used, especially
Schwartz’s description of the spin group (in my Chapter 3) and Peskin and
Schroeder’s description of the β-function and asymptotic freedom (in my
Chapter 8).
I thank my parents, Tim and Colleen, who always supported my education
and have wholeheartedly attempted to understand my world of physics
academia.
Finally, I thank my wife, Patricia, for detailed criticism, support, and
discussions about this project. We have been together since both of us started
as physicists, through graduate school and beyond, and I see this book as a
culmination of that part of our lives.
It goes without saying that any successes of this book are due to these
people, and any failures are all my own.

Andrew James Larkoski


Portland, Oregon
1

Introduction

Particle physics is the study of the fundamental principles of Nature. Within


the purview of particle physics are some of the deepest questions we can ask,
like “What is responsible for mass?” or “Why are there three spatial and one
time dimensions?” These are such big questions that no individual or even
individual country can hope to answer them alone. Contemporary particle
physics is truly an international endeavor, with scientists from nearly every
country on Earth involved in the major experiments. Today’s particle
physicist may regularly travel to conferences in Argentina, visit collaborators
in Japan, watch a live news conference about a major discovery from
Switzerland, or even collect data at the South Pole. It is also a dynamic field,
with numerous new results in particle physics published every week testing
those theories that we have or suggesting new ones. The liveliness and brisk
rate at which ideas are transferred in this field is largely due to particle
physics having one of the largest and most widely used preprint article
servers in all of science. These reasons also make taking a course on particle
physics attractive to many physics students.
All of the machinery, formalism, insight, and tools that you have gained as
a physics student is essential for studying particle physics. This involves the
whole range of advanced physics courses:

Classical Mechanics. Lagrangians and Hamiltonians are the principle


way in which we express a system in particle physics.
Special Relativity. The particles we explore are traveling at or near the
speed of light, c.
Quantum Mechanics. The particles and physical systems we
investigate are extremely small, so the fundamental quanta of action, ħ,
is necessary in our analysis.
Statistical Mechanics. Particles are classified by their intrinsic spin,
which defines them as fermions or bosons.
Electromagnetism. Likely electromagnetism, through Maxwell’s
equations, is the first field theory that you encounter in physics courses.

The language of particle physics is mathematics. From complex analysis to


Fourier transforms, group theory and representation theory, linear algebra,
distribution theory, and statistics myriad fields of mathematics are vital to
articulate the principles, theories, and data of particle physics. As we will see
in this book, the physics is extremely helpful in guiding the mathematical
expressions. The goal of this book is to use the intuition gained through other
physics courses and apply it to particle physics, which gets us a long way
toward understanding, without just blindly following the mathematics.
The particle physics introduced in this book is also the gateway to quantum
field theory, the result of the harmonious marriage of quantum mechanics and
special relativity. A complete treatment of quantum field theory is beyond the
scope of this book, but we will see glimpses of a richer underlying structure
as the book progresses. In particular, quantum field theory is the framework
in which three of the four fundamental forces of Nature are formulated. The
three forces are electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force. The
strong and weak forces are the focus of most of this book, with aspects of
electromagnetism studied throughout. Quantum field theory enables a
formalism which produces predictions that can be compared to data, and it is
often (and rightfully!) stated that quantum field theory is the most wide-
reaching and precise theory of Nature that exists.
This chapter serves as the overview that invites you to study this rich field.
Our goal is to frame the rest of the book, which necessitates a review of the
forces of Nature, a preview of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and a
glimpse of the Large Hadron Collider, the currently running and most
superlative particle physics experiment ever. We also need to introduce
natural units to describe particle physics phenomena, and we find that
familiar SI units are woefully inadequate.
1.1 A Brief History of Forces
Interactions between particles can be expressed through the four fundamental
forces. Gravity is the force that was first understood at some analytical level.
Gravity is a universally attractive force that couples to energy and
momentum. By “universally attractive” we mean that two particles are
always attracted to one another through gravity. By “couples” we mean that
the strength of the gravitational force is proportional to the energy of the
particle. For particles with slow velocities with respect to the speed of light,
the energy to which gravity couples is just the mass of the particle. The
strength of the force of gravity, defined by either Newton’s universal law of
gravitation or general relativity, is quantified by Newton’s constant, GN. For
example, in Newton’s theory, the force of gravity between two masses m1
and m2 separated by distance is

(1.1)

where r̂ is a unit vector in the direction of We say that GN is the “strength


of coupling” of gravity, or “coupling constant” for short. If GN is larger, the
force is larger; if GN is smaller, the force is smaller. In SI units, the value of
GN is

(1.2)

It turns out that, in appropriate units that we will discuss further later in this
chapter, GN is incredibly tiny. Gravitational forces are completely ignorable
for any microscopic experiment involving individual particles, like electrons
or protons.
The next force that was understood is electromagnetism. Unlike gravity,
which is universally attractive because mass is always positive,
electromagnetism can be either attractive or repulsive (or neutral). Particles
or other objects can have positive, negative, or no charge and the relative sign
of charges determines whether the force is attractive or repulsive. The electric
force between two charges q1 and q2 separated by distance ⃗r is

(1.3)

Here, the factor of (4πϵ0)−1 is the coupling constant of electromagnetism. The


value of ϵ0 in SI units is

(1.4)

where F is the SI unit of the farad. In appropriate units to enable comparison,


this is billions and billions of times larger than the coupling of gravity, GN.
Electricity and magnetism are intimately related as an electric field in one
reference frame produces a magnetic field in another reference frame. This is
also the starting point for special relativity, which we’ll review in Chapter 2.
This was the story at the end of the nineteenth century. Knowing the mass
and charge of an object is sufficient to determine how it will interact with any
other object, assuming that the only forces are gravity and electromagnetism.
This is also the point where this book begins, at the beginning of the
twentieth century. At this time, physics was undergoing huge revolutions: in
addition to the formulation of the modern pillars of relativity and quantum
mechanics, the electron was recently discovered, as was the nuclear structure
of the atom, and even odder things like superconductivity. A nineteenth
century physicist was completely powerless to address these phenomena and
understand them. They are not described strictly within the paradigm of
Newtonian gravity and Maxwellian electromagnetism.
Throughout the twentieth century, more and more particles and
interactions were discovered: the positron, the anti-particle of the electron;
neutrinos, very light cousins to the electron that are electrically neutral and
seem to pass through nearly everything; the muon, similar to the electron but
more massive; and so on. Near the end of the 1960s, hundreds of new
particles had been discovered and their properties (like mass, charge, and
intrinsic spin) measured. It was looking like quite a mess, with no clear
organizing principle. However, in the late 1960s through the late 1970s,
heroic efforts from theoretical and experimental physicists around the world
yielded a simple underlying framework that could explain all experimental
results. It became known as the Standard Model of Particle Physics.
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Title: The Roman assemblies from their origin to the end of the
Republic

Author: George Willis Botsford

Release date: June 28, 2022 [eBook #68419]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: The Macmillan Company,


1909

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMAN


ASSEMBLIES FROM THEIR ORIGIN TO THE END OF THE
REPUBLIC ***
THE ROMAN ASSEMBLIES

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY


NEW YORK. BOSTON. CHICAGO
ATLANTA. SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., Limited
LONDON. BOMBAY. CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO

THE
ROMAN ASSEMBLIES
FROM THEIR ORIGIN TO THE END
OF THE REPUBLIC

BY
GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
AUTHOR OF “THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION,”
“A HISTORY OF GREECE,” “A HISTORY OF ROME,”
“AN ANCIENT HISTORY,” ETC.
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1909
All rights reserved

Copyright, 1909,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1909.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
To
MY WIFE
Οὐ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ γε κρεῖσσον καὶ ἄρειον,
Ἢ ὅθ’ ὁμοφρονέοντε νοήμασιν οἶκον ἔχητον
Ἀνὴρ ἠδὲ γυνή· πόλλ’ ἄλγεα δυσμενέεσσι,
Χάρματα δ’ εὐμενέτησι· μάλιστα δέ τ’ ἔκλυον αὐτοί.
PREFACE
This volume is the first to offer in monographic form a detailed
treatment of the popular assemblies of ancient Rome. Necessarily
much of the material in it may be found in earlier works; but recent
progress in the field, involving a reaction against certain theories of
Niebuhr and Mommsen affecting the comitia, justifies a systematic
presentation of existing knowledge of the subject. This task has
required patient labor extending through many years. The known
sources and practically all the modern authorities have been utilized.
A determination to keep free from conventional ideas, so as to look
at the sources freshly and with open mind, has brought views of the
assemblies not found in other books. The reader is earnestly
requested not to reject an interpretation because it seems new but to
examine carefully the grounds on which it is given. In general the
aim has been to follow a conservative historical method as opposed
to the radical juristic, to build up generalizations on facts rather than
to estimate sources by the criterion of a preconceived theory. The
primary object of the volume, however, is not to defend a point of
view but to serve as a book of study and reference for those who are
interested in the history, law, and constitution of ancient Rome and in
comparative institutional research.
In the preparation of the volume, I have been generously aided by
my colleagues in Columbia University. To Professor William M.
Sloane, Head of the Department of History, I owe a great debt of
gratitude for kindly sympathy and encouragement in the work. It is an
especial good fortune that the proofs have been read by Professor
James C. Egbert. Many improvements are due to his scholarship
and editorial experience. Professor George N. Olcott has advised me
on various numismatic matters, and I am indebted to Dr. John L.
Gerig for information on two or three etymologies. The proofs have
also been read and corrections made by Dr. Richard R. Blews of
Cornell University. It is a pleasure to remember gratefully these able
friends who have helped me with their special knowledge, and to add
the name of Mr. Frederic W. Erb of the Columbia University Library,
whose courtesy has facilitated the borrowing of books for the study
from other institutions.
Notwithstanding every effort to make the work accurate, mistakes
and inconsistencies will doubtless be found in it, and I shall
thankfully welcome suggestions from any reader for its further
correction and improvement.
GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD.
Mount Vernon, New York, June 7, 1909.
CONTENTS
PAGES

PART I
Elements of the Comitial Constitution 1-118

CHAPTER I
The Populus and its Earliest Political Divisions 1-15

CHAPTER II
The Social Composition of the Primitive Populus 16-47

CHAPTER III
The Thirty-five Tribes 48-65

CHAPTER IV
The Centuries and the Classes 66-99

CHAPTER V
The Auspices 100-118

PART II
The Assemblies: Organization, Procedure, and
Functions, Resolutions, Statutes, and Cases 119-477

CHAPTER VI
Comitia and Concilium 119-138

CHAPTER VII
The Contio 139-151
CHAPTER VIII
The Calata Comitia 152-167

CHAPTER IX
The Comitia Curiata 168-200

CHAPTER X
The Organization of the Comitia Centuriata 201-228

CHAPTER XI
The Functions of the Comitia Centuriata 229-261

CHAPTER XII
The Comitia Tributa and the Rise of Popular
Sovereignty, to 449 262-282

CHAPTER XIII
The Comitia Tributa and the Rise of Popular
Sovereignty, from 449 to 287 283-316

CHAPTER XIV
The Judicial Functions of the Comitia Tributa, from
287 to the End of the Republic 317-329

CHAPTER XV
Comitial Legislation, from Hortensius to the
Gracchi 330-362

CHAPTER XVI
Comitial Legislation, from the Gracchi to Sulla 363-411

CHAPTER XVII
Comitial Legislation, from Sulla to the End of the
Republic 412-461
CHAPTER XVIII
The Composition and Preservation of Statutes,
Comitial Procedure, and Comitial Days 462-472

CHAPTER XIX
A Summary of Comitial History 473-477
Bibliography 479-498
Index 499-521
THE ROMAN ASSEMBLIES
PART I
ELEMENTS OF THE COMITIAL CONSTITUTION
CHAPTER I
THE POPULUS AND ITS EARLIEST POLITICAL DIVISIONS

I. The Populus

The derivation of populus, “people,” “folk,” is unknown. Attempts


have been made to connect it with populari, “to devastate,” so as to
give it primarily a military signification—perhaps simply “the army.”[1]
In the opinion of others it is akin to plēnus, plēbes, πλῆθος, πολύς,
πίμπλημι,[2] in which case it would signify “multitude,” “mass,” with
the idea of collective strength, which might readily pass into “army”
as a secondary meaning.[3] Fundamentally personal, it included all
those individuals, not only the grown men but their families as well,
who collectively made up the state, whether Roman or foreign,
monarchical or republican.[4] Only in a transferred sense did it apply
to territory.[5] The ancient definition, “an association based on the
common acceptance of the same body of laws and on the general
participation in public benefits,”[6] is doubtless too abstract for the
beginnings of Rome. Citizenship—membership in the populus—with
all that it involved is elaborately defined by the Roman jurists;[7] but
for the earlier period it will serve the purpose of the present study to
mention that the three characteristic public functions of the citizen
were military service, participation in worship, and attendance at the
assembly.[8] In a narrower sense populus signifies “the people,”
“masses,” in contrast with the magistrates or with the senate, as in
the well known phrase, senatus populusque Romanus.

II. The Three Primitive Tribes

The Romans believed that the three tribes which composed the
primitive populus were created by one act in close relation with the
founding of the city.[9] For some unknown reason they were led to
connect the myth of Titus Tatius, the eponymous hero of the Tities,
[10] with the Quirinal,[11] and with the Sabines,[12] who were
generally supposed to have occupied that hill.[13] Consequently
some of their historians felt compelled to defer their account of the
institution of the tribes till they had told of the union of the Sabines
with the Romans, which at the same time gave them an opportunity
to derive the names of the curiae from those of the Sabine women.
Varro,[14] however, who protests against this derivation, refers the
organization of the people in the three tribes to an earlier date,
connecting it immediately with the founding of Rome. Though he
affirmed that one tribe was named after Romulus, another after Titus
Tatius, and the third, less positively, after an Etruscan Lucumo,
Caeles Vibenna, who came to the aid of Romulus against Titus
Tatius,[15] neither he nor any other ancient writer identified the Tities
with the Sabines, whose quarter in the city was really unknown,[16]
or the Luceres with an Etruscan settlement under Caeles whether in
the Vicus Tuscus[17] or on the Caelian hill.[18] Since the Romans
knew the tribe in no other relation than as a part of the state, they
could not have thought of their city as consisting originally of a single
tribe, to which a second and afterward a third were added, or that
any one of these three tribes had ever been an independent
community. These views are modern;[19] there is no trace of them in
the ancient writers.[20] Even if it could be proved that they took this
point of view, the question at issue would not thereby be settled; for
no genuine tradition regarding the origin of the primitive tribes came
down to the earliest annalists; the only possible knowledge they
possessed on this point was deduced from the names of the tribes
and from surviving institutions presumably connected with them in
the period of their existence.[21] Under these circumstances modern
speculations as to their independent character and diverse
nationality seem absurd. The proper method of solving the problem
is to test and to supplement the scant sources by a comparative
study of the institution.
The low political vitality of the three primitive Roman tribes, as of
the corresponding Greek phylae,[22] when we first meet with them in
history, points to the artificiality of these groups—a condition
indicated further both by their number and by their occurrence in
other Italian states.[23] Far from being confined to Rome, the
tripartite division of the community belonged to many Greek and to
most Italian peoples,[24] and has entered largely into the
organization of communities and nations the world over.[25] A
derivation of tribus, Umbrian trifu, accepted by many scholars,
connects it with the number three.[26] The wide use of this
conventional number, and more particularly the regular recurrence of
the same three Dorian tribes in many Dorian cities—as of the same
four Ionic tribes in many Ionic cities[27]—and of the same three Latin
(or Etruscan?) tribes in several old Latin cities, could not result from
chance combinations in all these places, but point unmistakably to
the systematic imitation of a common pattern. That pattern must be
ultimately sought in the pre-urban populus, ἔθνος, folk. If we assume
that before the rise of city-states the Ionian folk was organized in four
tribes (phylae) and the Dorian and Latin folks in three tribes, we shall
have a condition such as will satisfactorily explain the tribal
organization of the city-states which grew up within the areas
occupied by these three folks respectively. The thirty votes of the
Latins may be best explained by assuming a division of their populus
into three tribes, subdivided each into ten groups corresponding to
the Roman curiae. Whereas in Umbria the decay of the pre-urban
populus allowed its tribes to become independent,[28] in Latium a
development in that direction was prevented by the rise of city-
states, which completely overshadowed the preëxisting organization.
The Italian city-state grew not from a tribe or a combination of
tribes, but from the pagus,[29] “canton,” a district of the pre-urban
populus with definite consecrated boundaries,[30] usually centering in
an oppidum—a place of defence and refuge.[31] In the beginning the
latter enjoyed no superior right over the territory in which it was
situated.[32] A pagus became a populus at the point of time when it
asserted its political independence of the folk. The new state
organized itself in tribes and curiae after the pattern of the folk. In the
main this arrangement was artificial, yet it must have taken some
account of existing ties of blood.[33] At the same time the oppidum
became an urbs[34]—a city, the seat of government of the new
populus. Thus arose the city-state. In the case of Rome several
oppida with parts of their respective pagi[35] were merged in one
urbs—that known as the city of the four regions.[36] Urbs and ager
excluded each other, just as the oppidani contrasted with the pagani;
[37] but both were included in the populus.

Most ancient writers represent the three tribes as primarily local,


[38]and the members as landowners from the founding of the city.[39]
Although their view may be a mere inference from the character of
the so-called Servian tribes, the continuity of name from the earlier to
the later institution points to some degree of similarity between them.
It can be easily understood, too, how in time the personal feature
might have so overcome the local as to make the old tribes appear
to be based on birth in contrast with the territorial aspect of the new.
[40]

It was probably on the institution of the later tribes that the earlier
were dissolved. They left their names to the three double centuries
of patrician knights.[41] Their number appears also as a factor in the
number of curiae, of senators, and of members of the great
sacerdotal colleges. Other survivals may be found in the name
“tribunus,” in the tribuni militum, the tribuni celerum,[42] the ludus
Troiae,[43] and less certainly in the Sodales Titii.[44]

III. The Curiae

The curia as well as the tribe was a common Italian institution. We


know that it belonged to the Etruscans,[45] the Latins,[46] and several
other peoples of Italy.[47] There were ten curiae to the tribe, making
thirty in all.[48] The association was composed, not of gentes as
many have imagined, but of families.[49] For the performance of its
social and religious functions it had a house of assembly, also called
curia,[50] in which the members—curiales—gathered for religious
festivals. The place of meeting was a part of an edifice belonging to
the collective curiae. In historical time there were two such buildings
—the Curiae Veteres[51] on the northeast slope of the Palatine near
the Arch of Constantine, containing seven curial meeting-places, and
the Novae Curiae[52] near the Compitum Fabricium, containing the
others. Their deities were Juno[53] and Tellus;[54] and their chief
festivals were the Fornacalia and the Fordicidia.[55] As the worship
was public, the expense was paid by the state.[56] At the head of the
curia stood the curio—who in historical time was merely a priest[57]
—assisted in his religious functions by his wife and children,[58] by a
lictor[59] and a flamen.[60] The fact that the curio had these officials
proves that he was originally a magistrate.[61] One of the curiones
the people elected curio maximus to exercise general supervision
over the worship and festivals of the association.[62]
Another function of the curiae was political. The grown male
members, meeting in the comitium, constituted the earliest assembly
organized in voting divisions—the comitia curiata—in which each
curia cast a single vote.[63] Religious and political functions the curia
continued to exercise far down into historical time; and for that
reason they have never been doubted by the moderns. For the
primitive period Dionysius[64] ascribes to them military functions as
well. His idea is that the three original tribes furnished military
divisions each under a tribune, and the curiae as subdivisions of the
tribe furnished companies, commanded each by a curio chosen for
his valor.[65] Doubtless the writer fairly describes the military system
which Rome employed before the introduction of the phalanx,[66] and
which corresponds closely with the system prevalent among the
early Greeks,[67] Germans,[68] and other European peoples.[69] The
military organization was everywhere a parallel of the civil. The
Roman army, however, was by no means identical with the curiate
assembly, for many belonged to the tribes and the curiae who for
various reasons were exempt from military service.[70]
It is probable, too, that the curiae, as well as the tribes,[71] were
territorial divisions. Not only have we the authority of Dionysius[72]
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