Elections in the Time of Cinna

According to Livy’s Periochae, L. Cornelius Cinna and C. Marius were elected to the consulship of 86 BC ‘without recourse to any electoral assembly’ (citra ulla comitia). This statement is often either dismissed outright or accepted as an accurate description of the constitutional irregularities of the Cinnanum tempus. This paper investigates how elections were conducted during this period, using the consular elections for 86 as a test case. It argues that, although the consular elections continued to take place in the comitia centuriata, there were irregularities in the way they were conducted, which may account for the epitomator’s confusion.