stent in their efforts to better the condition of their followers. Their especial aim was to raise their civil and political rights to an equality with those o

in the Comitia Tribúta, instead of the Comitia Centuriáta. Thus the plebeians gained a very important step. This bill is called the PUBLILIAN LAW (Plebiscítum Publilium). (Footnote: Al

gle continued unabated. The plebeia

of the patricians only. A change was demanded. This was obtained by the TERENTILIAN ROGATION, a proposal made in 461 by Gaius Terentilius Harsa, a Tribune, to the effect that the laws there

ersede all other magistrates, and especially to draw up a code of laws to be submitted to the people for approval. A commission of three patricians was sent to Athens to examine the law

opper, and placed in the Forum in front of the Senate-House. Two more tabl

ing uneasy under their injustice, finally rebelled when one of the Decemviri, Appius Claudius, passed a sentence that brought an innocent maiden, Virginia, into his pow

e SACRED MOUNT, where they nominated their own Tribunes. Then,

ontrol of the pater familias over his family was abolished. The close connection heretofore existing between the clients and patrons was gradually relaxed, the former became less dependent

he two orders were appro

d were instrumental in passing the so called VALERIO-

al to the Comitia Centuriáta agai

the Senate and Comitia Centuriáta, were made binding upon patricians and ple

Aediles, and other plebeian offi

t in the debates of the Senate,

must still be patricians, was intrusted to the Comitia T

N LAW, giving to the plebeians the right of intermarriage (connubium) with the patrici

ime the office of Consul, and to elect annually six MILITARY TRIBUNES in the Comitia Centuriáta, the office being open to all citizens. The people voted every year whether they shou

obtained two new officers, called CENSORS, elected from their own

of the Ce

izens of every class w

by the removal of any members who were

ances and public works of the state. This offic

tep forward by obtaining the right of electing one of t

s after loss. Even the rich plebeians, who had hitherto often found it for th

nd Sextius proposed and passed the follo

elect annually, as formerly, two Consuls, cho

00 jugera (300 acres) of the public lands, or f

eir fields a certain number of free laborers

wed money to be deducted from the principal, and

burdened by debts, and had some prospect of becoming solvent. But most of all, since the office of Consul was open to them, they felt that their interests were now m

ator, then those of Censor and of Praetor, and finally, in 286, by the law of HORTENSIUS, the plebiscita became binding upon all the people w

and although the Roman patricians still held aloof from the commons, ye

capit

holding property (COMMERCIUM); that of voting (SUFFRAGIUM); that o

ey obtained in the establishment of the COMITIA TRIBúTA; the third by