Page:The Referendum and the Recall Among the Ancient Romans (Abbott, 1915, hvd.32044080048069).pdf/8

6 by the Hortensian Law of 287, this restriction was removed, so far as the more democratic assembly of all the people was concerned, and henceforth the enactments of that body, whether approved or note by the senate, became the law of the land. This constitutional victory proved of little immediate value to the democracy. Within six years after the passage of the Hortensian Law Rome was involved in a long series of desperate wars with Pyrrhus, with Carthage, and with Macedonia, which did not come to an end until Carthage had fallen in 156 The danger that threatened the whole state brought all factions together in support of the existing régime. Domestic affairs were pushed into the background. This was no time to experiment with a new legislative device. Furthermore, much of the legislation of this century and a half had to do with the conduct of the various wars, and in this field the democracy freely recognized the superior competence of the senate. Things went on, therefore, after the passage of the Hortensian Law as they had done before its enactment. Under the traditional method of procedure only a magistrate could submit a measure to the people, and the influence of immemorial practice was so strong and the control of the magistrates by the senate was so complete, that an official rare brought a matter before the people without consulting the senate in advance. I have said, rarely because some half dozen instances are known toward the end of the period of the Great Wars when an executive ventured to submit a matter to popular vote which the senate had not previously discussed, but most of the proposals introduced this way failed of enactment because a majority of the people voted against them, or because the senate blocked them by a technical device.

Except in one important particular, then, which we shall notice in a moment, the usual legislative methods in Rome were the same for a hundred and fifty years as they are in those states of this Union where the referendum has been adopted. Bills could be passed either by the senate or by direct legislation. Most of the laws which governed the Romans had the sanction of the senate only, just as most statutes in our referendum states are enacted by the legislature. But measures in which the com-