I'm reading T.J. Cornell's The Beginnings of Rome and I'm having trouble understanding the curia mentioned on p116:
So... what was their purpose? Were they the government in the early Republic?Each curia had a leader with the title curio, who had to be over 50 years of age and held office for life. One of these leaders was chosen as head of all the curiae, the curio maximus. In the early Republic this post was always held by a patrician, which is not suprising; but in 209 BC a plebeian curio maximus was elected, which means that the curiae included plebeians in the third century, and probably always had.
Cornell says in the previous paragraph that "Romans who did not belong to gentes, if indeed such people existed, could not belong to curiae."
Does this mean that these curiae were hereditary instead of elected?
MULTAS GRATIAS VALETEQUE BENE!