Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/94

80 receiving the sanction of the senate; and on the resignation of his colleague he gained the support of three tribunes and remained in office contrary to law, in order that he might complete the works undertaken. He was successful. The magnificent Appian Way was a noble beginning of the network of highways which facilitated the conquest and the government of Italy.

The Flavian Law of Procedure. — A few years later, Appius carried the election of Gnaeus Flavins, his former secretary, to the curule aedileship, and induced him to publish various forms of legal procedure (legis actiones) and the calendar (fasti), which was mainly a list of court days. This law of procedure (jus Flavianum) formed a revision and supplement of the Twelve Tables, and tended to make the ordinary people independent of their noble legal advisers, especially of the pontiffs. In general, the result of the Appian reforms seems to have been a certain equalization of the humble and the noble plebeians, and a confirmation of the liberty of the common people.

Restoration of the Old Senatorial List. — The measures of Appius naturally excited opposition; the plebeian aristocrats and the moderate patricians combined against him, as they had done against his ancestor, the decemvir. They succeeded in electing their candidates for the consulship for the year 311. The new consuls disregarded the senatorial list of Appius, and summoned the former members to the meetings of the senate.

Censorship of Rullianus and Decius. — The censors of 307 did not venture to abolish the Appian principles of enrollment and classification. But the opposition gained ground, and in 304 again elected their candidates for the censorship — the military heroes, Quintus Fabius Rullianus and Publius Decius Mus. Rullianus and his colleague proceeded to