Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/78

64 Voluntary Cavalry Service. — The siege of Veii is said to have led to another reform in 403. The old cavalry of eighteen centuries was insufficient, and volunteers belonging to the first Servian class were accepted. They furnished and maintained their own horses, but received each thrice as much pay as an ordinary soldier. This regulation was of some importance from the military point of view, yet its chief effects were social and political. The rich plebeians now advanced another step toward the level of the patrician nobility; and, what was later of great consequence, the old cavalry tended to become, as it were, a regiment of ornamental Royal Horse Guards, in which during a long period all the senators remained and enjoyed a privileged suffrage.

The Roman infantry was reformed at about the same time. The old phalanx was broken up into small battalions (manipuli) in order to insure greater mobility; and the position of each soldier in the battalions depended, not as formerly, on his equipment, or his amount of property, but on his experience and ability. This reform probably had a democratic tendency.

Elections to the Consular Tribunate. — When the aristocratic plebeians disregarded the demands of the ordinary plebeians, they could not expect, nor did they receive, their support at the elections for the consular tribunate. The choice of consular tribunes was about as frequent as that of consuls down to 395, and was thenceforth an almost invariable rule until 367; so that the consulship seemed likely to disappear. In spite of the frequent election of tribunes the plebeians, with perhaps one exception in 444, were excluded from the office until the year 400. But in 400, 399, and 396 they elected a majority of the consular tribunes. Then they were defeated again for a number of years.