[quote=sylla1;832382]For the record, must confess that I'm really ectasic of being able to post my 14,000 post at Historum within a hot thread on a fascinating topic like this one

Back to the topic at hand; the next contribution of the Roman republic for the democracy on a global scale was even more groundshaking; the very introduction of the secret ballot, the main cornerstone of modern democratic elections, as attested by the several Leges Tabellaria.

The first one (attested by the available sources) was as early as DCXV AUC / 139 BC: (T. Livius Periocha AUC Oxyrrhynchus LIV: CXCV-CXCVI)

The critical Lex Gabina Tabellaria was also quoted more than once by MT Cicero: Quote:
Sunt enim quattuor leges tabellariae, quarum prima de magistratibus mandandis: ea est Gabinia, lata ab homine ignoto et sordido. (De Legibus, III:XXV)

As its name suggests, it was proposed by the plebeian tribune Aulus Gabinius, and it provided for magisterial election by secret ballot rather than by open voting in the comitia centuriata.
Here is another more extensive quotation on the same law, together with a nice (and obviously nostalgic) description of the old democratic electoral ways.
It was written by the time of Trajanus, when the democratic republic was just a remote memory: Quote:
DO you not remember that you have often read what Disputes were rais'd by the Law of Balloting?
And what glory or Reproach it brought upon him that made it?
Yet now, it has pleas'd, as the most perfect way in the Senate, without any Contradiction.
On the Election Day they all demanded the Tables.
Indeed, in those plain and open votes we exceeded the utmost Liberty of publick Assemblies.
No Time of speaking, no Bound of Silence, no Dignity of Order was preserv'd.
The Clamours on every Side were loud and jarring: All rush'd forth with their Candidates:
There were many Crowds in the Middle; many Rings of People, and an indecent Confusion;
so far had we funk from the Usage of our Ancestors; among whom all things were regular, moderate, calm, and maintain'd the Grandeur and Solemnity of the Place.
There are old Men alive, that speak much of this Order of the Assemblies.
When the Name of a Candidate was call'd over, there was a profound Silence.
He spoke for himself in Person, explain'd his Life, produc'd his vouchers and Hands to recommend him, either an Officer he serv'd under in War, or one to whom he was Questor; or if possible, both of them.
To these he added some of his voting Friends; they spoke gravely and concisely:
This was more useful than Petitions.
Sometimes a Candidate objected to the Birth-place, Age or Morals of a Competitor.
The Senate gave the Audience with a Censorian Gravity; so that the worthy prevail'd more often than the Favourite.
Quote:
Meministine te saepe legisse, quantas contentiones excitarit lex tabellaria, quantumque ipsi latori vel gloriae vel reprehensionis attulerit?
At nunc in senatu sine ulla dissensione hoc idem ut optimum placuit: omnes comitiorum die tabellas postulaverunt.
Excesseramus sane manifestis illis apertisque suffragiis licentiam contionum. Non tempus loquendi, non tacendi modestia, non denique sedendi dignitas custodiebatur.
Magni undique dissonique clamores, procurrebant omnes cum suis candidatis, multa agmina in medio multique circuli et indecora confusio; adeo desciveramus a consuetudine parentum, apud quos omnia disposita moderata tranquilla maiestatem loci pudoremque retinebant.
Supersunt senes ex quibus audire soleo hunc ordinem comitiorum: citato nomine candidati silentium summum; dicebat ipse pro se; explicabat vitam suam, testes et laudatores dabat vel eum sub quo militaverat, vel eum cui quaestor fuerat, vel utrumque si poterat; addebat quosdam ex suffragatoribus; illi graviter et paucis loquebantur. Plus hoc quam preces proderat.
Non numquam candidatus aut natales competitoris aut annos aut etiam mores arguebat. Audiebat senatus gravitate censoria. Ita saepius digni quam gratiosi praevalebant.
(Caius Plinius Secundus Minor, Epistualae, III: XX: I-VI)

Please someone explain us how on Earth could this contiones (political meetings) of the comitia have been condidered "undemocratic" by any standard...

Note: this is something close to a valid quotation from a Classical source; the reason for posting it was not clear, but as the compromise was to post here any valid Classical passage, here it comes:

This is either a poor forgery or a colossal mistake.

First, this is no translation; this is an anonymous personal commentary.

This poorly referenced passage on the 6th Roman king Servius Tullius from MT Cicero's De Re Publica is the following:
(Translation by CD Yonge) (Translation by Francis Barham) (French translation by M. Villemain).

(Yup, emphasis is mine)

Please note the entirely different conclusion.

The right full reference of this famous passage is book II, chapter XXI, sections XXXIX-XL.

Besides:
- This book is a philosophical Platonic like commentary, not a historical text.
- The statement came from a fictional Scipio Africanus minor.
- The statement is on the legendary (i.e. possibly unhistorical) Roman monarchy of Servius, purportedly circa the VI century BC, not about Cicero's contemporary Roman republican system of the I century BC.