Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/95

Rh the innovations of Appius. They assigned all those who had no land to the four city districts (tribus urbanae) and made these rank, not as the first, but the last. Perhaps they removed the freeholders of free birth from these districts so far as possible. In the urban districts each citizen was assigned to a Servian class according to the value of all his property, but in the country districts (tribus rusticae) according to the value of his land. The freedmen and their sons were placed in the city districts and excluded from the classes even when they were freeholders. The result of the arrangement was similar to a modern gerrymander on a large scale: it gave the freeholders the preponderance in the democratic assemblies, and preserved to the rich the preponderance in the assembly of centuries.

Two Appian principles seem, however, to have remained. First, no citizen who by law was entitled to the right of suffrage could be deprived of it by the censors, that is, be excluded from all the districts. This restriction of the censorial power was perhaps the greatest ever established. Secondly, the censors had the right to introduce new rules in regard to the enrollment and classification of citizens. This arbitrary power belonged properly to the legislative organs of the state. It led to uncertain and inconsistent regulations of the suffrage.

II. The Ogulnian, Valerian, and Hortensian Laws.

The Colleges of Pontiffs and Augurs. — The equalization of the orders could now go on to its final completion. The plebeians had so far not been admitted to the colleges of pontiffs and augurs. These were the foremost in the state and wielded a great political influence. The pontiffs had the general superintendence of public and private worship, were the interpreters of the religious law (jus divinum),