slowly but surely raised to equality of rights and privileges with their rulers and oppressors. These protectors were the famous Tribunes of the Plebs. We will now repeat the no less famous legends by which their first creation was accounted for.

§ 7. It was, by the common reckoning, fifteen years after the expulsion of the Tarquins (494 B.C.), that the Plebeians were roused to take the first step in the assertion of their rights. After the battle of Lake Regillus, the Plebeians had reason to expect some relaxation of the law of debt, in consideration of the great services they had rendered in the war. But none was granted. The Patrician creditors began to avail themselves of the severity of the law against their Plebeian debtors. The discontent that followed was great: and the Consuls prepared to meet the storm. These were Appius Claudius, the proud Sabine nobleman who had lately become a Roman, and who now led the high Patrician party with all the unbending energy of a chieftain whose will had never been disputed by his obedient clansmen; and P. Servilius, who represented the milder and more liberal party of the Fathers.

It chanced that an aged man rushed into the Forum on a market-day, loaded with chains, clad in a few scanty rags, his hair and beard long and squalid, his whole appearance ghastly, as of one oppressed by long want of food and air. He was recognised as a brave soldier, the old comrade of many who thronged the Forum. He told his story, how that in the late wars, the enemy had burnt his house and plundered his little. farm; that to replace his losses, he had borrowed money of a Patrician, that his cruel creditor (in default of payment) had thrown him into prison,' and tormented him with chains and scourges. At this sad tale, the passions of the people rose high. Appius was obliged to conceal himself; while Servilius undertook to plead the cause of the Plebeians with the Senate.

Meantime news came to the city that the Roman territory was invaded by the Volscian foe. The Consuls proclaimed a levy; but the stout yeomen, one and all, refused to give in their names and take the military oath. Servilius now came forward, and proclaimed by edict, that no citizen should be

'Such prisons were called ergastula, and afterwards became the places for keeping slaves in. See Chapt. xlviii. § 5.

imprisoned for debt so long as the war lasted, and that at the close of the war he would propose an alteration of the law. The Plebeians trusted him, and the enemy was driven back. But when the popular Consul returned with his victorious soldiers, he was denied a triumph; and the Senate, led by Appius, refused to make any concession in favour of the debtors.

The anger of the Plebeians rose higher and higher; when again news came that the enemy were ravaging the lands of Rome. The Senate, well knowing that the power of the Consuls would avail nothing, since Appius was regarded as a tyrant, and Servilius would not choose again to become an instrument for deceiving the people, appointed a Dictator to lead the citizens into the field. But to make the act as popular as might be, they named M. Valerius, a brother of the great Poplicola. The same scene was repeated over again. Valerius protected the Plebeians against their creditors while they were at war, and promised them relief when war was But when the danger was gone by, Appius again prevailed; the Senate refused to listen to Valerius; and the Dictator laid down his office, calling gods and men to witness that he was not responsible for his breach of faith.

over.

§ 8. The Plebeians whom Valerius had led forth were still under arms, still bound by their military oath; and Appius, with the violent Patricians, refused to disband them. The army, therefore, having lost Valerius, their proper general, chose two of themselves, L. Junius Brutus and L. Sicinius Bellutus by name, and under their command they marched northwards and occupied the hill which commands the junction of the Tiber and the Anio. Here, at a distance of about two miles from Rome, they determined to settle and form a new city, leaving Rome to the Patricians and their Clients. But the latter were not willing to lose the best of their soldiery, the cultivators of the greater part of the Roman territory, and they sent repeated embassies to persuade the seceders to return. They, however, turned a deaf ear to all promises; for they had too often been deceived. Appius now urged the Senate and Patricians to leave the Plebeians to themselves; the Nobles and their Clients, he said, could well maintain themselves in the city without such base aid.

§ 9. But wiser sentiments prevailed. T. Lartius, and M. Valerius, both of whom had been Dictators, with Menenius Agrippa, an old Patrician of popular character, were empowered to treat with the people. Still their leaders were unwilling to listen, till old Menenius addressed them in the famous fable of the Belly and the Members:

"In times of old," said he, "when every Member of the body could think for itself, and each had a separate will of its own, they all, with one consent, resolved to revolt against the Belly. They knew no reason, they said, why they should toil from morning till night in its service, while the Belly lay at its ease in the midst of all, and indolently grew fat upon their labours. Accordingly, they agreed to support it no more. The feet vowed they would carry it no longer; the hands that they would do no more work; the teeth that they would not chew a morsel of meat, even were it placed between them. Thus resolved, the Members for a time showed their spirit and kept their resolution; but soon they found, that instead of mortifying the Belly, they only undid themselves; they languished for awhile, and perceived too late that it was owing to the Belly that they had strength to work and courage to. mutiny."

§ 10. The moral of this fable was plain. The people readily applied it to the Patricians and themselves; and their leaders proposed terms of agreement to the Patrician messengers. They required that the debtors who could not pay should have their debts cancelled; and that those who had been given up into slavery (addicti) should be restored to freedom. This for the past. And as a security for the future, they demanded that two of themselves should be appointed, for the sole purpose of protecting the Plebeians against the Patrician magistrates, if they acted cruelly or unjustly towards the debtors. The two officers thus to be appointed were called Tribunes of the Plebs. Their persons were to be sacred and inviolable during their year of office, whence their office is called "sacrosancta Potestas." They were never to leave the city during that time; and their houses were to be open day and night, that all who needed their aid might demand it without delay.

§ 11. This concession, apparently great, was much modified

by the fact that the Patricians insisted on the election of the Tribunes being made at the Comitia of the Centuries, in which they themselves and their wealthy clients could usually command a majority. In later times the number of the Tribunes was increased to five, and afterwards to ten. They were elected at the Comitia of the Tribes, as we shall have to notice presently. They had the privilege of attending all sittings of the Senate, though they were not considered members of that famous body. Above all, they acquired the great and perilous power of the Veto, by which any one of their number might stop any law, or annul any decree of the Senate, without cause or reason assigned. This right of Veto was called the right of Intercession.

On the spot where this treaty was made, an altar was built to Jupiter, the Causer and Banisher of Fear; for the Plebeians had gone thither in fear and returned from it in safety. The place was called Mons Sacer, or the Sacred Hill, for ever after, and the laws by which the sanctity of the tribunitian office was secured were called the Leges Sacratæ.

§ 12. The Tribunes were not properly magistrates or officers, for they had no express functions or official duties to discharge. They were simply Representatives and Protectors of the Plebs. At the same time, however, with the institution of these protective officers, the Plebeians were allowed the right of having two Ædiles chosen from their own body, whose business it was to preserve order and decency in the streets, to provide for the repair of all buildings and roads there, with other functions partly belonging to police-officers, and partly to commissioners of public works.

That the election must have been so conducted is manifest from Liv. ii. 56, where he says that the object of the Publilian Law was to take away from the Patricians the power of " 'per Clientium suffragia creandi quos vellent Tribunos." When, therefore, Asconius (in Cornelianam, p. 76, ed. Orelli) says, “Tribuni Plebis Comitiis Curiatis creati," and when Dionysius (vi. 89, ix. 41) follows the same account, there must be some mistake.

CHAPTER VIII.

AGRARIAN LAW. THE ELECTION OF THE TRIBUNES TRANSFERRED TO THE TRIBES.

§ 1. Sp. Cassius, Patrician, patron of the Plebeians: proposes an Agrarian Law. § 2. Nature of Agrarian Laws. § 3. The Patricians allow Law to pass. § 4. Sp. Cassius condemned for aiming at kingly power. § 5. His fall increases power of Patricians: seven Consulships of Fabii. § 6. But boldness of Tribunes also increases: a Consul impeached by Tribune Genucius, who is murdered. § 7. Volero Publilius refuses to enlist. § 8. Chosen Tribune: Publilian Law, enacting that Tribunes should be chosen by Tribes. § 9. Second Appius Claudius elected Consul to oppose Law: in vain. Five Tribunes henceforth elected at Comitia Tributa.

§ 1. THE small beginning of political independence which the Plebeians had gained by the institution of the Tribunate, seemed likely to be much furthered by the unexpected appearance of a patron of their order in the ranks of the Patricians themselves. This was Spurius Cassius, a notable man. He was three times Consul. In his second Consulship he concluded a league with the Latins, and in his third Consulship a similar league with the Hernicans, by which the united people of Rome, Latium, and the Hernicans bound themselves to check the alarming advance lately made by the Volscians. But of this we will speak in the next chapter. At present we have to treat of another remarkable act of the third Consulship of Sp. Cassius, which was the proposal of the first AGRARIAN LAW.

§ 2. Great mistakes formerly prevailed on the nature of the Roman laws familiarly termed Agrarian. It was supposed that by these laws all land was declared common property, and that at certain intervals of time the State resumed possession, and made a fresh distribution to all citizens, rich and poor. It is needless to make any remarks on the nature and consequences of such a law; sufficient it will be to say, what is now known to all, that at Rome such laws never existed, never were thought of. The lands which were to be distributed by Agrarian