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248 tribunes, the nomination of whom till then had belonged to the generals; and some time before the first Punic war they decreed that themselves only should have the right of declaring war.

HE judiciary power was given to the people, to the senate, to the magistrates, and to particular judges. We must see in what manner it was distributed; beginning with their civil affairs.

The consuls had the power of judging after the expulsion of the kings, as the præstors were judges after the consuls. Servius Tullius had divested himself of the judgment of civil affairs, which was not resumed by the consuls, except in some very rare cases, for that reason called extraordinary. They were satisfied with naming the judges, and with forming the several tribunals. By a discourse of Apppius Claiudius, in Dionysius Halicarnasseus, it appears, that as early as the 259th year of Rome, this was looked upon as an established custom among the Romans, and it is not tracing it very high to refer it to Servius Tullius. Rh