Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/119

Rh control the votes of the eighteen centuries, and through them the votes of the first Servian class — in all, ninety-eight votes, or a majority.

Under these circumstances the censors, who selected and removed at discretion both senators and horsemen, became very important magistrates. The existence and exercise of the censorial powers also gave to the senate a certificate of good character, an invaluable moral prestige, and might serve as a check on independent men or disagreeable opponents. As a consequence the nobles used their best endeavors to elect their own men to the censorship and to maintain the arbitrary authority of the censors.

In this position, based chiefly on the control of the senate, the equestrian centuries, and the censorship, the new aristocracy was able, in case it should so desire, to manage the government and in a great measure to decide the constitutional development of the future.

The New Opposition. — The development of a new aristocracy naturally led to the gradual formation of a new opposition. The struggle for supremacy was no longer to be between patricians and plebeians, but between the nobility and the common people, between the rich and the poor. The opposition claimed to represent the lower classes, especially the small farmers. The first of the popular leaders at this time, Manius Curius and Gaius Fabricius, were new and comparatively poor men. Both filled the consulship and the censorship. Throughout their careers they opposed aristocratic arrogance and defended the common people.

Era of Good Feeling. — The interval between the last secession and the first Punic war formed, however, an era of good feeling. There were no constitutional or economic issues and there was no party strife. Not that the governing class — the aristocracy — had adequately and designedly