45 XVII. Proceedings quence of A crime so rare in the Roman annals produced its CHAP. natural and just consequence, a reaction against the cause which appeared to be connected with it. Con- in consesuls were chosen instead of tribunes of the soldiers; this murder. and the commons, to whom the senate had given the choice of the judge 5 in this cause, commissioned the consuls to inquire into the murder of Postumius, and to punish the guilty. This choice was sanctioned by the curiæ, and the judges thus appointed fulfilled their task with moderation, so that the influence which the patricians had gained by the whole transaction was marked by the undisturbed election of consuls for three years following. But by that time the feeling had changed: the continued opposition of the patricians to any agrarian law seemed a more present evil than the murder of Postumius: and while that crime had been duly punished, the injustice of the patricians was triumphant. It is dangerous to overlook a change in public opinion, and still more to try to force in its old direction. the tide which is beginning to turn. The patricians carried the election of consuls for a fourth year, in spite of a strong feeling of discontent; but the A.U.C. 346. commons were so roused, that in spite of all obstruc 45 "A plebe, consensu populi, consulibus negotium mandatur." Livy, IV. 51. A remarkable passage, which Niebuhr, as may be supposed, has not forgotten to appeal to, as a proof of the identity of the populus in old times with the patricians. It would seem as if the murder of Postumius was regarded as a crime committed by VOL. I. plebeians against the patrician B b A.C. 406. XVII. CHAP. tions caused by the presiding officer, they elected at the open comitia of quæstors 46 no fewer than three plebeians. Contests about the continued. Then the agrarian law was demanded more veheagrarian law mently than ever, and three tribunes, all of the Icilian family, were conspicuous as the leaders of the commons. The year passed away in these contests, but the commons insisted on having tribunes instead of consuls for the year following; and this was consented to ", but at the same time rendered nugatory by the condition annexed to it, that none of the tribunes of the commons of that year should be either re-elected to the same office or be chosen tribunes of the soldiers. Thus those candidates being excluded whose claims were greatest, the patricians once more succeeded in defeating the plebeian candidates of less name, and in obtaining every place in the tribuneship for their own body. A.U.C. 349. A.C. 403. Pay granted test. Two years afterwards came the issue of the conA truce which had been concluded for twenty diers; num- years 48 with the Veientians was now on the point of to the sol 46 Livy, IV. 54. cient notions, at war with Veii, to pass away without attacking their enemy, because the Veientians were involved in civil dissensions, and the Romans were too generous to take advantage of their weakness. We see from Thucydides, V. 14, that it was usual when a truce was nearly expired, to negotiate as to the terms on which it might be renewed: and this, I doubt not, is the true explanation of the negotiations that went on during the years 348 and 349. XVII. ber of tri soldiers in six. expiring; and as war rather than peace was sup- CHAP. posed to be the natural state of things between two nations, unless some express treaty was interposed, bunes of the so at the end of the truce hostilities would be creased to resumed of course, unless either party wished to renew it, and was willing to purchase its continuance on the enemy's terms. Rome now felt itself much stronger than Veii, for that town had been lately torn with internal discords, so much more violent and injurious than those of Rome, in proportion as there was less of equal law and of acknowledged rights. The Romans therefore put a higher price on the renewal of the truce than the Veientians would consent to pay; and both nations prepared for war. This was the moment for the commons to press their claims, and they refused to vote for the war unless something was done to satisfy them. The patricians, looking forward to all the glory and dominion promised them by the expected conquest of Veii, or yielding to the power of justice, at last gave way. The vectigal, or tithe, due from the occupiers of the public land, was to provide pay for the soldiers; if this were not sufficient, it was to be made good by a tax or tribute levied upon the whole people, according to the census of every citizen: and six tribunes of the soldiers were henceforth to be elected 49 This is not stated by Livy; but as it had been the great object insisted on by the tribunes, it is natural to suppose that it must either have been granted or at any rate promised." It was pro bably however paid very irre- XVII. CHAP. annually; one of whom, as Niebuhr thinks, was always to be a patrician, and to perform the important judicial duties afterwards discharged by the prætor urbanus; the other five were to be elected indiscriminately from either order. At any rate, six tribunes were elected from this time forwards, and this increased number gave the commons a greater likelihood of seeing some of the places filled by men of their own body. And so it happened, in fact; but for this the commons had yet to wait five years more. Accordingly pay 50 was issued to the soldiers, six tribunes of the soldiers were elected, and in the year A.U.C. 350. 350, about the end of the Peloponnesian war, the Romans began their vast career of dominion by laying siege to the great Etruscan city of Veii. A.C. 402. 50 Livy, IV. 59, 60, 61. CHAPTER XVIII. WARS OF THE ROMANS FROM 300 TO 364—THE ÆQUI ANS AND VOLSCIANS-THE ETRUSCANS-SIEGE AND Τὰ μὲν σπενδόμενοι, τὰ δὲ πολεμοῦντες—εὖ παρεσκευάσαντο τὰ πολέμια καὶ ἐμπειρότεροι ἐγένοντο, μετὰ κινδύνων τὰς μελέτας ποιούμενοι. THUCYDIDES, I. 18. XVIII. The foreign Rome is uncertain domestic. THE internal history of Rome in the first century of CHAP. the Commonwealth is obscure and often uncertain; nor can we venture to place full confidence in the history of details of events, or of individual characters. The even more family traditions and funeral orations out of which than the the oldest annalists compiled their narratives were often, as we find, at variance with each other, and dealt largely in exaggeration and misrepresentation. Yet still up to a certain point they were a check upon one another; there were necessarily limits to falsehood, when fellow-citizens, whether individuals or parties, were the subject on which it was exercised. But with regard to foreign enemies, even this check was wanting. Every family might claim victories over the Equians or the Veientians: there was no |