Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/123

Rh magnificent patriotism; but individual instances of degeneracy were multiplying. A public gladiatorial fight was first introduced at Rome in 264, religion became more and more a matter of form, and the censors of 252 found it necessary to expel sixteen senators, and to punish four hundred aristocratic youths in the equestrian centuries for insubordination.

Political Results of the War. — The development of distinct classes went on. Under the critical circumstances of the time, it was safer to reëlect well-known and capable men; accordingly new men had but scant opportunities for political advancement. Still, the nobility does not seem to have opposed them on principle. Tiberius Coruncanius, though a new man, was the first plebeian who was elected chief pontiff (pontifex maximus), and was afterward appointed dictator. But the problems of peace and war were becoming more and more difficult — too difficult, in fact, to be solved by any Cincinnatus hastily summoned from the plow. As a result the aristocracy was rising in statesmanship and generalship above the level, not only of the ordinary people, but also of the popular leaders. In consequence of the greater number of offices, which were in the main filled by nobles, the aristocracy formed a larger proportion of the senators, and to that extent lost an important point of contact with the common people.

The New Roman Policy. — At the same time that the people came to occupy a position of inferiority to the aristocracy, they began to assume an attitude of greater superiority to the Roman subjects, or allies. When, in 241, two new districts (tribus) were organized, one of them, the thirty-fifth of the total number, was named Quirina, and was probably intended to be the last. If so, the nobility, and perhaps the people as well, had already concluded to grant full