plebes, which was distinguished from the nobility and the Patrician families. These twe orders, joined together, formed what was properly called the Roman people, populus Romanus; whose general assemblies were held either by centuries, and were named centuriata comitia, in which the senate had the greatest power; or by tribes, tributa comitia, where the power of the people prevailed most. This people, already elate from the frequent victories and conquests they had gained over their neighbours, conceived still higher sentiments from the share they had in the administration, and the concessions the senate were obliged to make them in the times immediately following the revolution. Nothing was more capable of pleasing this people, than the readiness with which the consul Publicola in one night caused his house to be pulled down to the ground, upon some murmurings against the height of its situation, and the largeness of the building, which was looked on as a citadel. The same Publicola, to remove what was most terrible in the consular power, and make it more gentle and popular, caused the axe to be taken away in the city, from the fasces which were carried before the consul; [q] and when he shewed himself in an assembly of the people, he ordered that they should be bowed down, as though he submitted them to the people, and did homage to them for his authority. He farther extremely augmented the power of the people, and their immunities, by the law which allowed of an appeal to the people from the judgment of the consuls and senate; by that which condemned those to death who should accept any office without receiving it from the people; by the law which excused the poor citizens from paying taxes; and by that which exempted such as were disobedient to the [9] Gratum id multitudini spectaculum fuit, summissa sibi esse imperii insignia, confessionemque fac tam populi quàm consulis majesta- - Liv. consuls, consuls, from corporal punishment, and reduce the penalty of their disobedience, to a pecuniary mulct. To advance the authority of the people still farther, he thought fit to discharge himself of the custody and management of the public treasure, and prohibited any of his relations and friends from meddling with it. He therefore deposited it in the temple of Saturn, and, allowing the people to chuse two officers, who should have the keeping of it, he gave them a great share in the administration of the finances, which are the force of the state, the strength of war, and the substance of rewards. The people growing fond of being admitted into the administration, were careful ever after to lose nothing of their ground; and they could not be more agreeably pleased, than by having an opportunity given them of enlarging their rights and prerogatives. The strongest barrier they opposed to the proceedings of the senate and consuls, and the firmest support of their credit and liberty, was the establishment of the tribunes of the people [r] which was one of the conditions of their reconciliation with the senate, and their return into the city, after their withdrawing to the mons sacer. The person of these tribunes, who were properly creatures of the people, was declared sacred and inviolable. At first they created two, and afterwards they were multiplied to the number of ten. The Patricians were rendered absolutely incapable of this employment: [s] and, to disable them from influencing the election of the tribunes, it was ordered that all the plebeian magistrates should be nominated in the assemblies which were held by tribes, wherein the senators had little authority. The violence and injustice of the decemvirs, which occasioned the second [r] Agi deinde de concordiâ cœptum, concessunique in conditiones, ut plebi sui magistratus essent sacrosancti, quibus auxilii latio adversùs consules esset, neve cui patrum capere eum magistratum liceret. Liv. lib. 2. n. 33. [s] Volero, tribunus plebis, ro gationem tulit ad populum, ut plebeii magistratus tributis comitiis fierent. Haud parva res, sub titulo primâ specie minimè atroci, ferebatur; sed quæ patriciis omnem potestatem per clientium suffragia creandi quos vellent tribunos, auferret. Liv. 1. 2, n. 56. retreat retreat of the people to the Aventine hill, gave occasion also to strengthen the tribunes, with an additional power. It was decreed, that the laws made by the people in the assemblies held by tribes, should oblige all the Roman people, and consequently the senate as well as the rest; [t] which gave the tribunes a great authority; that they should create no magistrate, from whom it might not be allowed to appeal, and that every private man should be empowered to kill with impunity whoever should oppose this ordinance; that the person of the tribunes should be again declared more sacred and inviolable than ever. Their power, in short, extended very far, and reached even to the consuls themselves, whom they pretended they had a right to imprison [u] as they publicly declared, upon an occasion when the senate had recourse to their authority to reduce the consuls to their duty, who refus ed to obey them. After the people had thus confirmed their authority, they still went on to form new projects, which the tribunes, out of zeal or complaisance, did not fail to second with great warmth. They spared no pains to open to themselves the way to all posts of dignity, and especially the consulship, which was the first office of the state, in which the greatest part of the public authority resided, and which was reserved for the Patricians alone. After long and hot disputes, at last they obtained it, and upon the occasion of a slight adventure. I beg leave here to tell the story, as it is one of the most beautiful and most natural to be found in Livy. [r] Fabius Ambustus had married his eldest daughter to Serv. Sulpicius, a patrician, and the younger to a young plebeian, named Licinius Stolo. One day as the latter was visiting her eldest sister and they were talking together, Sulpicius, who was then tribune of the soldiers with consular power, coming home, the lictor struck the door with the rod he carried in his hand, according to custom, and made a great noise. The younger daughter, who was unacquainted with the custom, having expressed some fright upon the occasion, her elder sister laughed at her simplicity, and wondered she did not know what it meant. As the smallest trifles often make an impression upon the sex, the younger was highly offended at the mirth of her sister. The multitude of followers, who attended the military tribune, and expected his orders, without doubt made her consider the fortune of her elder sister as far superior to her own; and a secretjealousy, which is apt to occasion an uneasiness at seeing our relations in a station above us, made her repent of being married as she was. Whilst this uneasiness hung upon her, her father coming in, and finding her very sorrowful, desired to know the reason. But as she could not discover it, without seeming to want friendship for her sister, and respect for her husband, she declined telling him for some time. Fabius at last, by kind expressions and caresses, drew the secret from her, and she ingenuously owned, that the cause of her grief was the being married into a family, which was incapable of any post of honour or authority. Her father comforted her, and bade her not be uneasy, for she should soon see the same dignity in her family, as made her percuteret. Cùm ad id, moris ejus insueta, expavisset minor Fabia, risui sorori fuit, mirante ignorare id sororem. Ceterùm is risus stimulos parvis mobili rebus animo muliebri subdidit: frequentiâ quoque prosequentium rogantiumque numquid vellet, credo fortunatum inatrimonium ei sororis visum; suique ipsam malo arbitrio, quo à proximis quisque minimè "anteiri vult, pænituisse. Confusam eam ex recenti morsu animi cùm pater fortè vidisset, percunctatus satin' salva, avertentem doloris causam (quippe nec satis piam adversùs sororem, nec admodum in virum honorificam) elicuit, comiter sciscitando, ut fateretur eam esse causam doloris, quòd juncta impari esset, nupta-in domo, quam nec honos nec gratia intrare posset. Consolans inde filiam Ambustus, bonum animum habere jussit: eosdem prope diem domi visuram honores, quos apud sororem viderat. Liv. 1. 6. n. 34. think her sister so happy. From that moment therefore he laboured to effect it, in conjunction with his son-in-law Licinius. Having associated L. Sextius in their design, a young man of an enterprising genius, who wanted nothing but the rank of patrician to entitle him to the highest dignities in the state, they seized uyon the favourable opportunity which the present conjuncture afforded them, and, after several disputes with the patricians, they at last forced them to admit the plebeians, to the consulship. L. Sextius was the first man upon whom this honour was conferred. After this victory, nothing remained inaccessible to the people. The offices of prætor, and censor, and even the dictatorship and priesthood, were all offered and granted them; [y] the senate rightly judging, that after they had been reduced to grant them the consulship, it would be to no purpose to dispute any thing else with them. And thus the people, who were little less than slaves under the kings, and clients without power under the patricians, became by degrees equal to their patrons, and their associates in all the honours and employments of the commonwealth. CHARACTER THE THIRD. The reciprocal Moderation of the Senate and The disputes between the people and senate concerning public employments, continued very long, and were carried on with such a warmth and vigour, ás made them seem impossible to be terminated but by the ruin of one of the parties. The tribunes of the people, who were usually very hot and passionate, perpetually animated the multitude by bitter invectives against the consuls and senate. Upon the affair of prohibiting marriages between the patri[y] Senatu, cùm in summis im- præturâ tendente. Liv. L 8. n. 15. periis id non obtinuisset, minùs in VOL. III. |