Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/98

84 of plebiscites, Hortensius carried a law declaring that they should be binding on all citizens, and hence be equal to the laws passed by the whole people. It was no doubt further enacted that the previous approval of the senate should not be legally necessary (cf. pp. 57, 74).

The plebeian tribunes now had the same power to propose laws as the consuls, and it was appropriate and useful to confer on them similar privileges and to subject them to the same control. Perhaps they now for the first time obtained by law a seat in the senate, and the right to address, convene, and consult that body. They were in consequence expected to lay all bills before it, as was the practice of the consuls. The senate then had an opportunity to bring its whole influence to bear on them. It might also make use of them when it opposed the other magistrates. Thus it gained more than it had lost.

Provision respecting Market Days. — To Hortensius is ascribed also another enactment, which may have been a part of the preceding law. The first day of the Roman week (nundinae) was a holiday and market day, on which neither the popular assemblies could meet nor could the courts be in session. On this account it had been a convenient time for meetings of the plebeian assembly. So far as possible, it was now reserved for the administration of justice, and could no longer be chosen for meetings of the plebeians. The result was that the number of days on which plebiscites could be passed was greatly diminished, that fewer persons attended the meetings of the plebeian assembly, and that these could be more easily influenced. Besides, a suspensive veto of popular action could be exercised by the proclamation of festivals (feriae), and was in fact later exercised by the mere decree of the senate. A similar restriction of the activity of legislative bodies is effected at the present time by making the sessions of state