Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/420

 404 ROME called praters) were L. Valerias Potitus and M. Horatius Barbatus. Several popular laws were passed under their lead, by which an appeal to the people was secured to every citizen, the people including the plebeians, and the assem- bly of the tribes was endowed with full legis- lative power. The Canuleian law provided that patricians and plebeians might inter- marry. A proposition to throw the consulship open to the plebeians led to the establishment of military tribunes, to which offices plebeians were eligible. The censors were now first ap- pointed. The qurestorship was thrown open to the commons in 421, and this opened the senate to them. Veii was conquered in the beginning of the 4th century B. C. by Camil- lus. About 390 Rom& was taken by the Gauls under Brennus, after a battle on the banks of the Allia, and destroyed, with the exception of the citadel on the Capitoline hill, which was bravely defended through a siege of seven months. According to one account, the dic- tator Furius Camillus defeated Brennus and totally destroyed his army ; but the better sus- tained tradition is that the Gaul quitted Rome as a conqueror, after receiving 1,000 Ibs. of gold as a ransom for the defenders of the fortress. The people then wished to settle at Veii, but their design was prevented through the in- fluence of Camillas. They were reduced to great misery, and to this time belongs the story of Manlius Capitolinus, who, like earlier popu- lar leaders, was charged by the patricians with aspiring to kingly power and put to death. The Licinian rogations were brought forward in 376, by the tribunes C. Licinius Stolo and L. Sextius ; they provided that debtors should be relieved, that the occupation and use of the public domain should be limited, and that one of the consuls should be a plebeian. After a contest of about ten years, these rogations be- came law ; and during the contest a law was passed committing the charge of the sibylline books equally to plebeians with patricians, an invasion of the monopoly of the religious min- istry of the state which the latter had long held. L. Soxtius was the first plebeian con- sul, chosen at the election next following the triumph of the measures of himself and his colleague. At this time the judicial power was taken from the consuls, and placed in the hands of the praetor urbanu*, a newly created patrician magistrate. The curule redileship was created, to which members of both orders were eligible. These changes were the most important events of Roman history. Not only did they go far to unite the two orders, and so put an end to those civil contests which had prevented the military advance of the Romans, but by enlarging the sphere and elevating the spirit of citizenship, they created the citizen legions by whom the conquest of Italy was effected. But for this, the Samnites would probably have become masters of the Italian peninsula. The patricians did not immedi- ,ately submit to the Licinian laws, both con- sulships being at times held by members of their order down to 343 ; but after that time they were divided regularly. In 172 both con- sulships were opened to the plebeians. The first plebeian dictator was C. Marcius Rutilus (356), who was chosen censor five years after- ward. For many years after the restoration of Rome under Camillus, the wars waged by the Romans were carried on against Volscians, uEquians, Etruscans, and Gauls, and were suc- cessful contests, the victors behaving with much liberality to those of the vanquished whom they incorporated into the state, ma- king them citizens, and increasing the number of the tribes. Fears of the Gauls led to the renewal of the Latin league in 358. The first Samnite war began in 343, and the immediate occasion of it was the demand for assistance by the Capuans against the Samnites, they sur- rendering their city to Rome. It lasted little more than a year, when peace was made in consequence of the renewal of internal trou- bles ; and the settlement of those troubles was followed by the Latin war, which ended (339) in the complete triumph of the Romans. The second Samnite war was begun in 326, and lasted about 22 years. Its fortunes were va- rious, including the disaster of the Caudine forks, but the Romans were finally victorious. The Etruscans made war upon Rome, but were defeated. The third Samnito war opened in 298, and Samnium submitted to Rome in 290. The Gauls and Etruscans were also defeated in the same war. During the time of these wars several political measures were carried at Rome which tended to establish equality be- tween the plebeians and patricians; and by the Ogulnian law the pontificate and the au- gurate were opened to the plebeians. The passage of this law, in 300, is considered as the establishment of the Roman constitution. 44 What is called the constitution of Rome," says Arnold, 44 as far as regards the relations of patricians and plebeians to each other, was in fact perfected by the Ogulnian law, and remained for centuries without undergoing any material change. By that law the com- mons were placed on a level with the patri- cians, and the contests between these two or- ders were brought to an end for ever. The comitia too had assumed that form, whatever it was, which they retained to the end of the commonwealth ; the powers of the magistrate as affecting the liberty of the citizen under- went but little subsequent alteration." The subsequent civil troubles were social, or were brought about by the ambition of able men who sought to make use of 44 the forum popu- lace," a class entirely distinct from the ple- beians, with whom they are often confounded ; or they were caiised by attempts to effect great reforms, like those of the Gracchi, which sought the restoration of the old constitution after its provisions had long been neglected or violated by the ruling classes. The last seces- sion of the plebeians took place in 286, and