more correctly, the inscription, in public, of all the laws concerning institutions or individuals, as well as those relating to the authority of the Consuls. Otherwise, indeed, it would be difficult, with all the proofs of Patrician temper before us, to account for the virulence with which the bill of Terentilius was still opposed. The Tribunes of the five years might have been again chosen, had not the number of their college, as they were called collectively, been increased from five to ten, under a condition, imposed by the Senate or the Curies, that the same Tribunes should never be chosen a second time.74 In a period of so much disorder, public and private, it was of the greatest advantage to the Plebeians to have as many protectors as they could obtain; and it is an additional intimation of increasing spirits amongst them, that, in spite of the terms just mentioned, the first ten Tribunes were all reëlected for the following year. In the course of this second term, the efficiency of their office was still further secured by the agreement of the Tribunes, under oath, to stand fast by one another, in the proceedings they should resolve together to pursue."

75

This laudable resolution was almost immediately followed by the bill of the Tribune Lucius Icilius, to convey the Aventine hill to the Plebeians, as their peculiar and exclusive possession. Although the earliest homes of the lower estate had been marked out upon

74 Ne postea eosdem tribunos juberent." Liv., III. 30.

75 Dion. Hal., X. 31. Οὕτως

οἰόμενοι μάλιστα τὸ τῆς δημαρχίας ἀκατάλυτον ἔσεσθαι κράτος, κ. τ. λ.

the Aventine, they had of course been surrounded by fields or lots, like all the rest of the public domain in the occupation of the Patricians; and these were now demanded for the Plebeians. It was little for the higher order to surrender, not only because there could not be much land left upon a single hill, but likewise because the Aventine, still, as long after, stood beyond the Pomarium, the hallowed boundary of the city. The Consuls, accordingly, made no hesitation about presenting the bill to the Senate, before whom Icilius was admitted to speak in its behalf, and by whom it was accepted, being then confirmed by the Centuries. The law provided for the indemnification of the Patricians for any buildings or improvements they had made upon the lands; and when this was done, the Plebeians took possession of the hill with solemn ceremonies. There was no space, of course, for every member of the order to have a separate dwelling; nor would many, who were comfortably settled in town or country, have any desire to remove to the Aventine; but to all alike it was an object of congratulation that they had a place to meet in, apart and secure, even if there were comparatively few to make it their habitation.76

In deciding that the bill concerning the Aventine should become a law, the Senate may only have desired to stop the mouths still clamorous for the Te

76 Livy (III. 31) mentions the law as having been quietly passed; but Dionysius (X. 31, 32), more

improbably, makes it the cause of tumult and violent opposition

rentilian bill. It may have been for the same purpose that the Consuls of a year or two afterwards procured the passage of a law by which their authority of laying fines upon the Plebeians was restricted, and the same power conferred on other magistrates." So the appointment of three Patrician commissioners to make a voyage in quest of the laws of Greece,78 and, perhaps, of other lands besides, was a fresh device, on the part of their order, to gain time against the long evaded claims of the Tribunes. On the other hand, however, the Plebeians were insisting upon their satisfaction, and renewing the older demands for lands. The adversaries of both measures were accused, and condemned to the payment of heavy fines: 79 signs clear as the dawn, that the estate which sat in darkness was determined to have its day.

On the return of the commissioners from Greece, there was no further delay. Another pestilence had fallen upon the city, in token, as the Plebeians would say, of the gods' displeasure at the injustice done them; and though it might be unsafe to think that the Patricians agreed with their interpretation, yet it is a fact that ten magistrates were speedily appointed by the Centuries, under the title of Decemvirs, to enter upon the great work of framing a legal and constitutional code for the Roman people. If it had been the design of Terentilius Arsa, ten years before,

77 Cic., De Rep., II. 35. Dion. Hal., X. 50.

78 Liv., III. 31.

79 Dion. Hal., X. 33 et seq., Liv., III. 31.

42.

that, of his ten commissioners, five should be Plebeians, it failed; for the ten were undoubtedly all Patricians, though it is very probable that some were taken of the milder as well as of the severer party. Appius Claudius, the same, probably, whose arraignment before the Tribes has been previously noticed, and who, if he were the same, had returned from exile and been chosen Consul, was, by virtue of his office,80 one, and soon the chief, of the Decemvirs. The powers which he and his colleagues received were enormous. All other officers were suspended from their functions while those of the decemvirate continued; and even the common liberties of the people, apparently, too, of the superior as well as the inferior class, were in abeyance, until the Decemvirs should decide upon their resumption. The only restriction upon this boundless authority was that imposed by the Tribunes, who, before laying down their offices, secured the maintenance of the laws of Mons Sacer, and that concerning the Aventine. Yet, as it was through the exertions of the Tribunes that the bill of Terentilius had been enlarged, and the election of the Decemvirs obtained, the sanguine Plebeians might trust, even through the professions and hypocrisies of Appius Claudius, to obtain the justice they had long implored or required.

83

81

In one year the Decemvirs, while alternately en

80 If, as Niebuhr says, the two Consuls, the Prefect, and the two Quæstors for the year were joined to five others chosen by the Centuries. Vol. II. p. 144. The three VOL. I.

55

commissioners from Greece were certainly amongst them.

81 See Dion. Hal., X. 55, 66. 82 Liv., III. 32.

83 Dion. Hal., X. 54.

84

gaged in the administration of the Commonwealth, had so well employed themselves as to produce ten tables of written laws. They asked, however, a longer term in order to complete their labors; but, though all appear to have sought a reëlection, Appius alone succeeded. Of his new associates, three were Plebeians; yet the tradition, that the second Decemvirs assumed fresh pretensions, and were attended each by his twelve lictors, instead of taking turns in superiority, implies their faithlessness or their feebleness under the overweening influence of their colleague. Two more tables were the fruits of the second year; 85 and to the bitterness of these the imperfections of the entire code were in after times referred. But as there are only fragments of the Twelve Tables in existence, they can be judged only together; and the following chapter will inquire into them, not, again, merely as a whole, but, further, as the result of the first works of the Tribunes in Rome.

84 Arnold, Hist. Rome, Vol. I. pp. 299, 300.

85 The two years were from the spring of A. C. 451 to that of 449.