Page:A history and description of Roman political institutions (IA historyanddescri00abbo).pdf/47

Rh themselves strong enough to do so. In the interval they felt that they had secured themselves by a number of safeguards. It was, for instance, within the power of the senate to decide each year whether the chief magistrates should be consuls or consular tribunes; the election of consular tribunes by the required the ratification of the patrician senators, and finally, since the number of these officials was not fixed, it was probably possible in some cases to reject successful plebeian candidates on the ground of unfavorable auspices, or for similar technical reasons. These legal restrictions, combined with the superior political ability of the patricians and the prestige which their social position gave them, enabled them to exclude the plebeians entirely from the office up to 400, and after that date the number of plebeian successes was small.

35. Economic Difficulties. The political situation, which was already serious, in consequence of the repeated disappointments of the plebeians, was still further complicated by the development of an agrarian difficulty. We have already had occasion to notice (p. 29) the unfair treatment in the division of land to which the plebeians were subject, and the economical and political hardships which resulted form it. The difficulty steadily grew in seriousness. In the first third of the fourth century there was an almost unbroken series of wars with the Aequi, the Volsci, the Latins, and the people of Veii. During these long campaigns patrician estates could be cultivated by dependents, but the returns from the little holdings of the poor plebeian grew smaller and smaller, and the land itself steadily deteriorated in value. Undoubtedly, also, the peasant proprietor was finding it more and more difficult to compete with the owner of large estates.