Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/72

 CHAPTER IV.

CONSULAR TRIBUNES AND CENSORS, 447-367 B.C.

I. Intermarriage, Consular Tribunate, and Censorship.

The General Situation. — So far the plebeians had struggled to secure such private rights as depended on the administration of justice and on an equitable management and disposal of the public domain. In the sphere of justice they had been successful, but in regard to the system of occupation (pp. 40-41) they had failed to obtain any permanent improvement The reason for this difference in results may be found in the fact that some of the wealthy and influential plebeians were as much interested in the unjust land policy as the patricians.

As yet the plebeians had made no direct attempt to wrest from the patricians their exclusive possession of the consulship and their control of the government During the time of the decemvirs two questions had become prominent: the right of intermarriage, and the eligibility of the plebeians to the highest office in the state. The former was decided against the plebeians by a law of the Twelve Tables and the latter by the restoration of the consulship. Neither decision was final.

Perhaps the ordinary plebeians by this time comprehended that they needed equal political rights in order to secure just treatment in the private sphere. The wealthy plebeians probably understood that they would always remain the inferiors and dependents of the patricians unless they