This was called
giving of names, which the children of Israel did also by lot;
and if any man refused to give his name, he was sold for a slave,
or his estate confiscated to the commonwealth. 'When Marcus
Curius the Consul was forced to make a sudden levy, and none of
the youth would give in their names, all the tribes being put to
the lot, he commanded the first name drawn out of the urn of the
Pollian tribe (which happened to come first) to be called; but
the youth not answering, he ordered his goods to be sold; which
was conformable to the law in Israel, according to which Saul
took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them
throughout the tribes, saying, 'Whosoever comes not forth to
battle after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen.'
By which you may observe also that they who had no cattle were
not of the militia in Israel. But the age of the Roman youth by
the Tullian law determined at thirty; and by the law (though it
should seem by Machiavel and others that this was not well
observed) a man could not stand for magistracy till he was miles
emeritus, or had fulfilled the full term of his militia, which
was complete in his tenth stipend or service, nor was he
afterward obliged under any penalty to give his name, except the
commonwealth were invaded, in which case the elders were as well
obliged as the youth.
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