Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/134

120 in the requirements for entering the fifth class. The total number of centuries was now three hundred and seventy-three, in place of the one hundred and ninety-three Servian centuries (p. 23).

The New Method of Voting. — Each century seems to have had one vote; then one hundred and eighty-seven centuries constituted a majority. Flaminius probably deprived the equestrian centuries of the right of voting first. Henceforth one of the centuries of the highest class was drawn by lot (centuria praerogativa) and voted first. Then came the other sixty-nine centuries, the equestrian centuries, and the century of carpenters; next, the centuries of the second class and the century of coppersmiths; then the third class; and, if necessary, the fourth class, and perhaps the centuries of musicians; and, in their turn, the fifth and the century of those simply entered on the roll (capite censi). The voting was continued until a majority of all the centuries was reached, but no longer.

Results of the Reform. — The Flaminian reform of the centuriate assembly was the first important constitutional change which the new opposition wrested from the patricio-plebeian nobility, — the first victory of the middle classes. It was popular and democratic in the best sense. The retention of the old requirements for admission to the classes had in the course of time involved an extension of the more valuable suffrage in the classes (pp. 36-37), as the national wealth was constantly on the increase. In addition, the lowest limit of $242 had now been reduced, and this greatly diminished the number of those who had a practically illusory suffrage in the lowest century (centuria capite censorum). While before the reform the members of the first class and the equestrian centuries formed more than a majority, and could, if unanimous, decide every issue, they now