Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/100

 CHAPTER VII.

REVIEW OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 509-287 B.C.; AND A SURVEY OF THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT, 509-268 B.C.

I. The Citizens and the Assemblies.

Character of the Period. — The chief and distinctive feature of the second period is the gradual equalization of the orders. The plebeians accomplished this result by inconsisent methods: they established a special organization originally outside the constitution, — an incipient state within the state, — and they sought to obtain the same rights as the patricians under the constitution. In this manner they secured equality of rights earlier than they would have done otherwise, they obtained magistrates and an assembly of their own, and they influenced profoundly the development of the republican constitution. Their conflicts with the patricians during two centuries not only gave to the Roman people an incomparable political training, but also made this the creative, the constructive epoch of the republic. The laws of this period in regard to the rights and powers of the people, the magistrates, and the senate brought the constitutional development of the republic substantially to a close. The general results were: that the ancient civic equality was in a large measure restored, the rights of the majority of the citizens were extended, the powers of the assemblies were enlarged, and the magistrates became the servants of the senate.