The Roman form of government then became republican, and its executive and legislative branches confifted principally of the Confuls, the Senate, the Comitia or Affembly of the People, and the Tribunes. The name of Conful feemed to imply rather a Counfellor than an active Magiftrate, but the real authority of the Conful was very great. The two Confuls were the Generals of the forces; they could raife armies, and nominate officers; they prefided in the Senate, and could convene or difiifs it at pleasure. The only material distinction between the confular and the regal power was, that the former was limited to one year. The Senate, fo called from the advanced age of the members who compofed it, was a deliberative council: under Romulus it confifted of an hundred members, but was by Tarquinius Prifcus increased to three hundred. They were at first chofen by the Confuls from the body of the Patricians, but afterwards the Plebeians acquired an equal right to that dignity. They were the guardians of religion, fuperintended the conduct of all Magiftrates, appointed Proconfuls to the command of the provinces, decided upon the fate of the conquered nations, had the care of the public treafures, and, when the ftate was in danger, could appoint a Dictator, and inveft the Confuls with abfolute power. Servius Tullius, the fixth King of Rome, divided the people into fix claffes, and each clafs into centuries, fo called; not as really confifting of a hundred hundred, but as being obliged to furnish a hundred men in time of war. The firft five claffes were arranged according to the proportions of their property; the fixth clafs, which was the most numerous and the pooreft, was exempt from all the taxes which the others paid. That the richer citizens might have privileges, as a compenfation for bearing the burthens of the ftate, Servius enacted that the Comitia, or Affembly of the People, fhould give their votes by centuries, which were one hundred and ninety-three in number. The first and fecond claffes contained one hundred and twenty of thefe, and if they were unanimous, a majority was fecured. Thus in the Comitia Centuriata, in which the Chief Magiftrates were elected, peace or war decreed, criminals were condemned or acquitted, the richer claffes had the fole authority, and the votes of the poorer were of no effect. Such was the ingenuity of this conftitution that all were fatisfied with it; the rich on account of the privileges which they enjoyed, and the poor for their exemption from taxes. By means of the Cenfus, the population and wealth of the ftate were afcertained; all the citizens were required to declare upon oath their names, places of abode, number of children, and amount of their income. This review enabled the Cenfors to arrange every citizen in his proper clafs. The Cenfus was clofed with religious rites and facrifices, which conclufion was called luftrum; and hence the word luftrum was used for the fpace of five years, because at the end of that period the Cenfus was made. There were two Cenfors; they numbered the people, infpected their conduct, and regulated their employments. So honourable was their office, that it was exercifed even by Confuls and Emperors. The Tribunes of the People, at first five, afterwards ten in number, were chosen annually their perfons were facred; they could annul the decrees of the Senate by their decifive weto, and, under pretence of meafures being carried on injurious to the ftate, could arreft even the Confuls themfelves. They had two Magiftrates to affift them called Ediles, who took care of the buildings of the city. In the earliest ages of the Kings and firft Confuls, the Romans had no regular body of civil laws. To remedy this great defect, Terentillus, a Tribune, propofed the appointment of ten Commiffioners to frame and digeft a code of laws for the fecurity of the rights of all orders of the state. After a fruitless oppofition of the Patricians to the measure, the Decemviri were chofen, and the laws were framed, which are known by the name of the Twelve Tables, and which are the basis of the Roman jurifprudence. They are celebrated by Cicero, as containing the effence of all the wifdom of the philosophers, but they were evidently calculated only for a rude and unpolifhed ftate of fociety. They fhow the feverity of the Roman character, as * B. C. 451. they they gave fathers abfolute power over their fons, whom they had a right to treat precifely as flaves. To give the Decemviri uncontrolled authority; the office of Conful was abolished. But an atrocious deed foon put an end to their tyranny. Appius Claudius, one of the Decemviri, inflamed with lawless paffion for the beautiful Virginia, the betrothed wife of Icilius, a Tribune of the people, employed a profligate dependant to claim the virgin as his property, under pretence of her being the daughter of one of his female flaves. The infamous Appius confirmed the claim. Her father, to fave the honour of his child, plunged a dagger into her breaft; and the people, witnesses of this dreadful fcene, would have facrificed Appius to their juft refentment, had he not efcaped amid the tumult. Their vengeance was fatisfied with the abolition of this odious magiftracy, and the death of Appius, who fell by his own hands'. This is the fecond inftance in which Roman revolutions owed their origin to the infults offered to women. From this caufe arofe the abolition of the regal office and the Decemvirate; and this caufe occafioned that remarkable change, by which the Plebeians obtained a right to fhare the highest offices in the ftate with the Patricians. The younger daughter of Fabius Ambuftus, married to a Plebeian, envious of the honours of her elder 1 B. C. 449. fifter, fifter, the wife of a Patrician, ftimulated her father to roufe the Plebeians to affert their rights. After great contefts, candidates from their body were admitted to hold firft the office of Conful, afterwards thofe of Cenfor, Prætor, and Priest. The degree of ariftocracy, which had been infufed into the Roman government by Servius Tullius, gave rife to fierce and long-continued diffenfions between the Patricians and Plebeians. The Patricians, recommended by their rank and high birth, as they were defcended from the first senators, for fome time appropriated to their own order all the great offices of the ftate. The Plebeians, whofe means of fubfiftence were very fcanty, were oppreffed with debt, and fuffered great hardships from the extortion and cruelty of their creditors. They claimed redrefs of their grievances, the fuppreffion of enormous ufury, the abolition of corporal punishment, and the freedom of debtors. They retired to the Mons Sacer, and not only obliged the Senate to comply with their requests, but acquired the right of choofing Magiftrates from their own order, who fhould have the power of oppofing with effect any encroachment on their interefts". Thefe were the Tribunes, and after their appointment the two parties were brought more nearly upon an equality, greater harmony prevailed at home, and the battles of the commonwealth were fought with more fpirit abroad; its dominion was extended, |