Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/84

70 Provisions as to Free Labor and Debts. — The provisions in regard to free laborers and the payment of existing debts were the most unsatisfactory of all. Credit is no doubt due the authors of the law for having so early called attention to the danger to free labor which is inherent in slavery; but they could not without an industrial revolution prevent the development of the system of farming on a large scale and by means of slaves.

The debtors were undoubtedly aided by the new regulations, in so far as they had the means wherewith to pay the balances of their debts. But, as the next twenty-five years show, it was purely a temporary relief. On the other hand, the law of debt, which for generations the plebeians had been trying to change, was not altered; and even its enforcement — another plebeian grievance of long standing — was left mainly in patrician hands, in charge of the patrician praetor and aediles.

II. Plebeian Progress, Economic Conditions and Measures.

Election of Curule Aediles and Military Tribunes. — The curule aedileship was at first patrician; but it was soon arranged that two patricians should be chosen one year, two plebeians the next, and so on by turns. The plebeians seem to have filled the office, for the first time, in 364. Hitherto the commanders of the legions, the military tribunes (tribuni militum), had been appointed by the consuls or their deputies. In 362 the choice of six military tribunes was left to a popular assembly (the comitia tributa). The new arrangement was probably intended to gratify the people, who had for a long time been choosing military tribunes with consular powers. The plebeians were eligible to the military tribunate, and may have gained a political advantage at the expense of military discipline.