Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/406

 400 THE REVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV. ended by being convinced. Insensibly he came to have a less firm and haughty opinion of his superiority; he was no longer so sure about his rights. Now, an aristocracy, when it comes to doubt that its empire is legitimate, either no longer has the courage to defend it, or defends it badly. As soon as the prerogatives of the patricians were no longer an article of faith for them, this order might be said to be half vanquished. The rich men appear to have exercised an influence of another kind on the plebs, from whom they sprang, and from whom they did not yet separate. As they desired the greatness of Rome, they wished for the union of the two orders. Besides, they were ambitious ; they calculated that the absolute separation of the two orders forever limited their own career, by chaining them forever to the inferior class, whilst a union would open a way to them, the end of which they could not see. They tried, therefore, to give the ideas and ^ishes of the plebeians another direction. Instead of persisting in forming a separate order, instead of making laws for themselves which the other order would never recog- nize, instead of working slowly by plebiscita to make a species of laws for their own use, and to prepare a code wiiich Mould have no ofiicial value, they inspired the plebs with the idea of penetrating into the patrician city, and sharing its laws, institutions, and dignities. From that time the desires of the plebs turned to a union of the two orders on the condition of equality. The plebs, once started in this direction, began to demand a code. There were laws at Rome, as in all cities, unchangeable and lioly laws, which were written, and the text of which was preserved by priests.^ But these laws, which were a part of the religion, applied ' Dionysius, X. 1.