Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/419

 ROME 403 Homo and its Vicinity, Ancient and Modern. more than once they threatened the utter de- struction of the state. The plebeians seceded from Rome about 494, with the intent to found a new city; but a compromise was effected, and plebeian tribunes were created, for the purpose of protecting members of their order against the cruel and unjust action of patri- cian magistrates; during their year of office, the persons of these tribunes were to be sa- cred and inviolable. The number of tribunes was increased, until they became ten ; and they possessed the veto power, which enabled them to stop any law, or to annul 'any decree of the senate, without assigning any cause for their action. They were the representatives and protectors of the plebeians, and none but plebeians could be made tribunes. The ple- beians were at the same time allowed to elect two sediles. By the Publilian law it was pro- vided that these tribunes and sediles should be chosen by the tribes in the forum, and not at the assembly of the centuries in the Cam- pus Martins. The first free election was held about 470. Spurius Cassius, who was finally put to death by the patricians because he had successfully advocated a popular agrarian law, formed leagues with the Latins and Hernici, by which the Volsci and ^Equi were prevented from conquering Rome and Latium. The le- gends of the elder Brutus, Lucretia, Valerius Publicola, Horatius Codes, Mucius Scaevola, Menenius Agrippa, Coriolanus, the dictator Cincinnatus, and the Fabii belong to this first period of the republic. Historically, Cincin- natus appears as a stern oligarch. The decem- virate was established in 451 (according to the commonly adopted chronology), and lasted but two years, the period of its existence being a patrician despotism, to which belongs the le- gend of Virginia. The consuls elected in 449 (according to some the first, the supreme magis- trates of the republic having previously been