Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/118

104 (calceus mulleus) used by the patrician, and later by all, senators. Every senator wore two perpendicular purple stripes (clavus) on his tunic (later named tunica laticlavia).

Character and Aim of the Aristocracy. — The new patricio-plebeian aristocracy may be regarded as consolidated and harmonious after the passage of the Ogulnian law in 300. At this early epoch it was generous and patriotic. As a rule it placed the public welfare above personal and party interests. It did not rest on the support of the lowest classes — the freedmen and the city rabble. Still it was not satisfied with its honorary privileges, and early endeavored to obtain sole political power in the state by controlling the senate, the equestrian centuries, and the censorship.

Political Position of the Aristocracy. — It probably did not attempt, nor would it have been able, to exclude all new men from the curule offices and the senate. But as it comprised all those who had precedence and the greatest influence in the senate, because they were present or past curule magistrates, it was in a position to convert the senate into an organ of its own.

It could not in the same way, or to the same extent, exercise a direct control over the assemblies, but it usurped the most influential suffrage in the centuriate assembly. The institution of voluntary service in the cavalry (equites equo privato) had diminished the military importance of the equestrian centuries (equites equo publico), and made it possible to disregard the question of fitness for military service at the periodic review and selection of these horsemen. Hence it became a rule that the senators should remain and vote in these centuries; and the other places were in the main assigned to young nobles. The military system of the state suffered decidedly from this change, but the nobility gained a great advantage. They could now usually