Curia

A curia, plural curiae, is an assembly, council, or court, in which public, official, or religious issues are discussed and decided. In ancient Rome, the populace was divided into 30 curiae, which met in order to confirm the election of magistrates, witness the installation of priests, the making of wills, and adoptions. Lesser curiae existed for other purposes. The word curia also came to denote the places of assembly, especially the senate. Similar institutions existed in other towns and cities of Italy. In medieval times, a king's council was often referred to as a curia. Today, the most famous curia is the Curia of the Roman Catholic Church which assists the Roman Pontiff in the hierarchical government of the Church.

Origins

The word curia is thought to derive from Old Latin coviria, meaning "a gathering of men" (co-, "together" =vir, "man"). In this sense, any assembly, public or private, could be called a curia. In addition to the Roman curiae, voting assemblies known as curiae existed in other towns of Latium, and similar institutions existed in other parts of Italy. During the republic, local curiae were established in Italian and provincial municipia and coloniae. In imperial times, local magistrates were often elected by municipal senates, which also came to be known as curiae. By extension, the word curia came to mean not just a gathering, but also the place where an assembly would gather, such as a meeting house.

Curia (disambiguation)

Curia may refer to:

People named Curia:

Curia (gens)

The gens Curia was a plebeian family at Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned at the beginning of the third century BC, when the family was rendered illustrious by Manius Curius Dentatus.

Praenomina used

The praenomen most closely associated with the Curii is Manius. However, other members of the gens bore the names Gaius and Quintus. It is uncertain whether the name Vibius, belonging to Vibius Curius, Caesar's general, was his praenomen, or if he was a member of the gens Vibia.

Branches and cognomina

The only cognomen that occurs in the gens is Dentatus, meaning "toothed." It may originally have referred to someone with large or prominent teeth, but Manius Curius Dentatus is said to have derived his cognomen from the circumstance of having been born with teeth in his mouth.

Members