There were many

305. Dissatisfaction of the Rich Plebeians. plebeians, moreover, who were bitterly dissatisfied, although they were rich in goods and lands. This was true especially of the descendants of the old ruling families in the conquered Latin towns whose population had been removed to Rome. These men were aggrieved because they were not allowed to hold office or to intermarry with the old Roman families. Thus they became the natural leaders and organizers of the mass of poorer plebeians.

306. Objects of the Struggle. Against all these unfavorable conditions (§§ 302-305) the plebeians rose in a struggle that filled a century and a half (510-367 B.C.). At first their demands seem chiefly to have concerned relief from the unjust debtor laws and their right to share in the public lands. Probably the leaders cared more for equality with the patricians in the law courts, for rights of intermarriage, and for political power. Gradually the whole plebeian body, also, began to demand these things, because they found that whatever economic rights they won were of no value, so long as the laws were carried out only by patrician officers.

II. STEPS IN THE STRUGGLE.

A. TRIBUNES OF THE PLEBS.

307. The First Secession of the Plebs. In ten chapters Livy gives a graphic story of the first clash between the orders. The account may be summarized briefly.

The plebs, driven to despair by the cruelty of patrician creditors, refuse to serve in a war against the Volscians, until the consul wins them over by freeing all debtors from prison. But when the army returns victorious, the other consul refuses to recognize his colleague's acts; he arrests the debtors again, and enforces the law with merciless cruelty. On a

1 Two views exist as to the original uprising. The older and more common one holds that the plebeians revolted to escape being enslaved, almost as a class, for debt. The later holds that in so simple a society so much debt was impossible, and that the plebeians rose to secure protection against the arbitrary despotism of patrician magistrates in individual cases. See Mommsen (I, 345-346) for the first view; Ihne presents the second idea (Early Rome, 129, 141, 142, and History, I, 147–149).

renewal of the war, the betrayed plebs again decline to fight; but finally Manius Valerius (of the great Valerian house "that loves the people well") is made dictator, and him they trust. Victory again follows; but Valerius is unable to get the consent of the Senate to his proposed changes in the law. So the plebeian army, still in array outside the gates, rises in revolt and marches away to a hill across the Anio, some three miles from Rome, where, they declare, they will build a Rome of their own. This would have meant the conquest of both the old and new cities by neighboring foes; so a compromise is patched up, and the plebs return from the "Sacred Mount."

308. The Tribunes and their Veto, 493 B.C. Whether the details of the story of the secession are true, we do not know; but the result is certain. The letter of the law was not changed, but the plebeians secured means to prevent its execution in any given case. Two plebeian tribunes, it was agreed, should be chosen each year. The person of these officers was declared inviolable, and a curse was invoked upon the man who should interfere with their acts. In order that they might protect the plebeians, they were given a portion of the consular veto. That is, they could stop any magistrate in any act of government, and so, whenever they saw fit, they could prevent the arrest or punishment of a plebeian. But this veto could be exercised only within the city, and by the tribunes in person. Hence a tribune's door was left always unlocked, so that a plebeian in trouble might have instant admission.

309. Subsequent Growth of the Tribuneship. In consequence of later disturbances, the number of tribunes was increased to five, and finally to ten, so as to afford more efficient protection. Their power, also, grew, until they came even to forbid acts like the putting of a vote in the centuries or in the Senate. Thus they could bring the whole government to a standstill.

"Absolute prohibition was in the most stern and abrupt fashion opposed to absolute command; and the quarrel was settled (?) by recognizing and regulating the discord."— MOMMSEN, I, 354, 355.

1 It is notable that this arrangement was not established by law but by a treaty between the two orders, as if they had been separate states. (See Ihne, Early Rome, 142, 143.)

Besides this power of impeding action in the government, the tribunes came to have a terrible judicial power. It seems probable that even before the treaty of the Sacred Mount the plebs had had their own chosen rulers to act in plebeian gatherings, as the consuls did in the Comitia of the Centuries, proposing rules and impeaching offenders against them.1 Now the plebeian tribunes came to accuse in this way the patricians also, even consuls, and to arrest and fine them, with appeal only to the Assembly of the plebeians, where patricians could expect little favor.

B. RISE OF THE PLEBEIAN ASSEMBLY.

310. Ancient Organization of the Plebeians. It is plain that the plebeians must have possessed some such organization as has just been referred to, with regular meetings and officers, or they could never have waged the long constitutional struggle in so orderly a manner; but the matter is very obscure. Probably the organization was based upon certain local divisions called "tribes."

At some early date, the city and territory of Rome had been divided into twenty-one wards, or tribes, for taxation, and for the military levy. In the absence of a complete organization in gentes, the plebs seem to have availed themselves of these local units. In some way, a plebeian "Assembly of Tribes" grew up and became a real governing body for the plebeians, though the patricians tried to refuse any recognition to its acts.3

1 See Ihne, History, I, 183–187, or Early Rome, 143, 144.

2 These local tribes had no connection with the three blood tribes. (Cf. the 66 tribes " of Cleisthenes, § 135.) This institution is attributed to Servius. Four of the tribes were within the city, and are shown on the map, page 266. 8 For conflicting views as to the original nature of the Assembly, see Ihne, Early Rome, 144-147, or History, I, 183–185, 206, 207, and Mommsen, I, 359, 360. It is probable that the patricians had the right to attend the Assembly of the Tribes, but that they did not care to do so at this time, when they could accomplish so much less in it than they could in the Assembly of Centuries.

311. This Plebeian Assembly wins Recognition in the State. The plebeian tribunes of the "tribes" had now been put alongside the patrician consuls of the centuries. The next step was to set the plebeian Assembly alongside the mixed Centuriate Assembly.

The patricians seem to have provoked the struggle, by trying to control the election of tribunes, by bringing it into the Assembly of the Centuries and by endeavoring to prevent the plebeians from holding their separate meetings.

A bitter contest of twenty years was closed in 471, by the victory of the plebs. The tribune Publilius Volero secured the consent of the Senate to a decree known as the Publilian Law. This legalized the old plebeian organization. It guaranteed to the Assembly of Tribes the right to elect the tribunes and to pass decrees (plebiscita) which should have the force of law upon the plebeians.1

312. The Result a Double State; Violence over Agrarian Questions. Thus the first struggle of the plebs for admission into

the state had set up instead a double state a plebeian state over against the patrician state, each with its own Assembly and leaders, with no arbiter between the two and no check upon civil war except mutual moderation.

The device was clumsy, and could not have been worked at all by a people of low political capacity. Even with the Romans, it led during the next few years to much violence. Street fights between the orders took place; consuls and leading patricians were driven into banishment; and the tribune Genucius was assassinated by patrician daggers.

During this period Spurius Cassius, the first patrician to dare take up the cause of the people, fell a victim to his order. He had served Rome gloriously in war and in diplomacy (§ 326, note). Now, as consul, he proposed a reform in the

1 This power was soon to be extended so that the decrees of the plebeian Assembly should become equal to those of the Comitia Centuriata in all matters (see the Horatian Law, § 317, note).

2 Mommsen, I, 354-361.

selfish patrician management of the public lands. The patriciaus raised the cry that he was trying to win popular favor so as to make himself tyrant. The foolish plebeians allowed. themselves to be frightened by the charge; they deserted their champion, and he was put to death.2

None the less, the plebeians made some small gains. Some colonies of poor citizens were established on the public lands, and, in 466, the Aventine district within the city was parceled out into building lots for landless plebeians.

C. THE DECEMVIRS.

313. The Plebs demand Written Laws. - In 462 the plebeians asked that the laws be written down, so that they might be known by all. This demand was furiously opposed by the patricians, but after a ten years' struggle the plebeians won. Both consuls and tribunes were set aside for a year; and the Assembly chose a Board of ten men to revise and write down the laws.

From their number,

314. The Two Boards of Decemvirs. ten, these men were known as decemvirs. During their year they were to govern the city as a Board of dictators. Both plebeians and patricians were eligible to the office, but in the first election (451 B.C.) the patricians secured all the places. The story now becomes obscure. It seems probable, however, that this patrician Board neglected to reduce the laws to writing. But the next year Appius Claudius, one of the first decemvirs, joined the plebeians and secured his own reëlection, along with several plebeian colleagues.

1 Under like conditions, two other citizens, Spurius Maelius and, later, Manlius (384 B.C.), who had saved the capitol from the Gauls, fell before like charges. Special reports should be assigned upon these men.

2 According to one story, the father of Spurius, a proud patrician, put his son to death himself, in the right of his paternal authority. The father's power, however, did not permit this: it did not give the father control over the action of a son when the son was an officer of the state.

3 Compare with the Athenian demands in the time of Draco (§ 108).