Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/228

214 against the oligarchy; and numerous men of ruined fortunes. These classes had very different objects and pursued different methods, but most of them were ready to support the chief democratic aim — the restoration of the tribunician power. The tribunes were expected to prove efficient instruments against the oligarchic party, and the magic charm of the name itself was revealed in the revolution of Rienzi, fourteen hundred years later.

The Revolt of Lepidus. — Even during the lifetime of Sulla the opposition to the oligarchy had revived. The citizenship of an inhabitant of Arretium was recognized by the court of ten (decemviri stlitibus judicandis) in spite of the Cornelian law (p. 200), and as a consequence all who had been deprived of citizenship by that law began to exercise their former rights.

For the year 78 the seditious M. Aemilius Lepidus was chosen consul with Q. Lutatius Catulus as his colleague. As there was no leader of the opposition, he assumed the rôle from personal motives. Still, when after the death of Sulla the tribunes requested that the tribunician power be restored, he opposed this step and did not identify himself with the democrats. But he proposed that the distribution of grain should be renewed, those proscribed and in exile be recalled; those whose property had been confiscated were to be reinstated, and the law depriving the people of Volaterrae and others of citizenship was to be revoked. By these bills he expected to win the support of most of the discontented classes. He was energetically resisted by Catulus, and succeeded only in reëstablishing the distribution of grain under certain restrictions. In Etruria disorders arose, and the people of Faesulae seized their lost estates by force. The senate very unwisely sent Lepidus and Catulus there to restore peace. As was to be expected, Lepidus raised an army, and in 77 led it against the capital, but was defeated