Curia - Roman Republic

Roman Republic

In the Roman Republic, there were three types of divisions into which the people were organized:

1. the curiae, which were based on clans or gentes;
2. the centuriae, which were military;
3. and tribus, local "tribes" that were voting blocs. The curiae are thought to have been created by dividing the original three tribes into ten divisions. Each curia was then further divided into ten decuriae. Each curia was led by a curio, over whom presided the curio maximus.

The curia per antonomasia was the Curia Hostilia in Rome, which was the building where the Senate usually met. The Senate, initially just a meeting of the city elders from all tribes (its name comes from "senex", which means "old man"), saw its powers grow together with the conquest that brought a town of humble origins to rule a large Republic (and then decrease steadily with the advent of the Empire).

During their expansion, the Romans exported the model to every city that gained the status of Municipium, so that it had its own Senate and its own officials charged with local administration (although they weren't usually elected but nominated by the central government; the only place where officials were actually elected by the people was Rome itself, and by Imperial times even those elections, although kept for the sake of tradition, no longer had significance). Senators themselves were not elected since the early Republic, having been transformed into a hereditary nobility.