Curia

(kū're-ah.) [L.] (Rom. Hist.) A division or portion of a tribe. According to tradition, Romulus divided the people into 30 cur iæ, or wards, ten in a tribe. Each curia had its own place of worship, and was superintended by a priest called curio. In later times the name was also applied to the senate-house at Rome; to the senate-house of a provincial city; and to the senate or aristocratic body of the provincial cities of the empire. [s. 254]