CONVENT US

was the name applied to the whole body of Roman citizens who were either permanently or for a time settled in a province. In order to facilitate the administration of justice, a province was divided into a number of districts or circuits, each of which was called convent us , forum , or jurisdictio . Roman citizens living in a province were entirely under the jurisdiction of the proconsul; and at certain times of the year, fixed by the proconsul, they a embled in the chief town of the district, and this meeting bore the name of convent us ( σύνοδος ). Hence the expre ions— convent us agere , peragere , convo care , dimittere . At this convent us litigant parties applied to the proconsul, who selected a number of judges from the convent us to try their causes. The proconsul himself presided at the trials, and pronounced the sentence according to the views of the judges, who were his a e ors ( cons ilium or cons i liar i i ). These convent us appear to have been generally held after the proconsul had settled the military affairs of the province; at least, when Caesar was proconsul of Gaul, he made it a regular practice to hold the convent us after his armies had retired to their winter quarters.