Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

PLEBES.

299

PLEBES.

of performing certain services, and they are,
in fact, sometimes called peregrini. That
such a state of things could not last, is a
truth -which must have been felt by every
one who was not blinded by his own selfish-
ness and love of dominion. Tarquinius
Priscus was the first who conceived the idea
of placing the plebeians on a footing of equal-
ity with the old burghers, by dividing them
into three tribes, which he intended to call
after his own name and those of his friends.
But this noble plan was frustrated by t;ie
opposition of the augur Attus Navius, who
probably acted the part of a representative of
the patricians. All that Tarquinius could do
was to effect the admission of the noblest
plebeian families into the three old tribes,
who were distinguished from the old patrician
families by the names of Eamnes, Tities, and
Luceres secundi, and their gentes are some-
times distinguished by the epithet minores,
as they entered into the same relation in
which the Luceres had been to the first two
tribes, before the time of Tarquinius. It was
reserved to his successor, Servius Tullius, to
give to the commonalty a regular internal
organisation, and to determine their relations
to the patricians. He first divided the city
into four, and then the subject country
around, which was inhabited by plebeians,
into twenty-six regions or local tribes, and
in these regions he assigned lots of land to
those plebeians who were yet without landed
property. [Tribus.] Each tribe had its
praefect, called tribunus. The tribes had
also their own sacra, festivals, and meetings
(comitia tributa), which were convoked by
their tribunes. This division into tribes with
tribunes at their heads was no more than an
internal organisation of the plebeians, analo-
gous to the division of the patricians into
thirty curiae, without conferring upon them
the right to interfere in any way in the
management of public affairs, or in the elec-
tions, which were left entirely to the senate
and the curiae. These rights, however, they
obtained by another regulation of Servius
Tullius, which was made wholly independent
of the thirty tribes. For this purpose he
instituted a census, and divided the whole
body of Roman citizens, plebeians as well as
patricians, into five classes, according to the
amount of their property. Taxation and the
military duties were arranged according to
these classes in such a manner, that the
heavier burdens fell upon the wealthier
classes. The whole body of citizens thus
divided was formed into a great national
assembly called comitiatus maximus, or co-
mitia centuriata. [Comitia.] In this assembly
the plebeians now met the patricians appa-

rently on a footing of equality, but the votes
were distributed in such a way that it was
always in the power of the wealthiest classes,
to which the patricians naturally belonged,
to decide a question before it was put to the
vote of the poorer classes. A great numbei
of such noble plebeian families, as after the
subjugation of the Latin towns had not been
admitted into the curies by Tarquinius Pris-
cus, were now constituted by Servius into a
number of equites, with twelve suffragia in
the comitia centuriata. [Eqxitf.s.] In this
constitution, the plebeians, as such, did not
obtain admission to the senate, nor to the
highest magistracy, nor to any of the priestly
offices. To all these offices the patricians
alone thought themselves entitled by divine
right. The plebeians also continued to be
excluded from occupying any portion of the
public land, which as yet was possessed only
by the patricians, and they were only allowed
to keep their cattle upon the common pasture.
—In the early times of the republic there was a
constant struggle between the two orders, the
history of which belongs to a history of Rome,
and cannot be given here. Eventually the
plebeians gained access to all the civil and
religious offices, until at last the two hostile
elements became united into one great body
of Roman citizens with equal rights, and a
state of things arose, totally different from
what had existed before. After the first
secession, in b. c. 494, the plebeians gained
several great advantages. First, a law was
passed to prevent the patricians from taking
usurious interest of money, which they fre-
quently lent to impoverished plebeians;
secondly, tribunes were appointed for the
protection of the plebeians [Tiubuni] ; and
lastly, plebeian aediles were appointed.
[Aediles.] Shortly after, they gained the
right to summon before their own comitia
tributa any one who had violated the rights
of their order, and to make decrees (plebis-
cita), which, however, did not become binding
upon the whole nation, free from the control
of the curies, until the year b. c. 286. In
(b. c. 445), the tribune Canuleius established,
by his rogations, the connubium between
patricians and plebeians. He also attempted to
divide the consulship between the two orders,
but the patricians frustrated the realisation of
this plan by the appointment of six military
tribunes, who were to be elected from both
orders. [TitiBuxi.] But that the plebeians
might have no share in the censorial power,
with which the consuls had been invested,
the military tribunes did not obtain that
power, and a new curule dignity, the censor-
ship, was established, with which patricians
alone were to be invested. [Censoii.] In