E. Pais, Storia di Roma, Vol. I. Turin, 1899: London, 1855. C. Peter, Geschichte Roms, 3 Bde. 4te Aufl. Halle, 1881. E. W. Fischer, Römische Zeittafeln. Altona, 1846. H. F. Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, Vol. III. Oxford, 1841. H. F. Clinton, Fasti Romani, 2 vols. Oxford, 1845-50. H. Matzat, Römische Zeittafeln für die Jahre 219 bis 1 v. Chr. Berlin, 1889. H. Matzat, Römische Chronologie, 2 Bde. Berlin, 1883-4. PART II-REPUBLICAN PERIOD SECTION I-HISTORICAL CHAPTER III THE PATRICIAN CITY 24. Credibility of Early Republican History. The traditional story of the kings is in large measure a transparent fiction. After the establishment of the republic the narrative descends into the realm of the possible and credible, but we should be mistaken in accepting the early part of it as trustworthy. Both the external and the internal evidence show it to be otherwise. For the first century or more of the republic contemporary records are completely lacking. Everything of the sort must have been lost when the city was taken by the Gauls in 390. Then, too, an examination of the history of the early period, which ancient writers have left us, reveals the fact that truth and fiction are constantly interwoven, and that the greater part of the account is the production of a later date. The meager records which religious and political officials made in the fourth century B.C., relying on tradition, were supplemented, as time went on, by traditional tales of popular military heroes and political leaders, and successive generations of writers sought to remove inconsistencies, to suggest explanations, and to embellish the narrative by the use of rhetorical How devices, as they did in the case of the regal history. ever, the constitutional struggle which is under way when more trustworthy history begins is only a continuation of that of the first century of the republic, and from our knowledge of its nature, and of the forces at work, we can make fairly safe inferences concerning similar movements of the early period, and in this way test the truth of the traditional account. In a like manner the character of certain politi- . cal institutions in the historical period, and the line which they take in their development, enable us to determine their early form with considerable probability. In this way the main features of the constitutional history of the early republic can be made out. 25. The Chief Magistracy. Tradition is probably right in making the transition from the monarchy to the republic a sudden one, the outcome of a revolution. The most important result of this revolution consisted in the changes which the chief magistracy underwent. In place of the rex, who under the old regal constitution was the choice of the patres, and held office for life, two chief executives, called praetores, or leaders, were chosen annually by the whole body of citizens. Two of the three changes just mentioned in the position of the chief magistracy are of immediate importance, while the third is of future significance. A chief executive who holds office for a limited period only can be held accountable for his conduct at the close of his term of office. Furthermore, the participation of a colleague in the exercise of supreme power will tend to prevent a magistrate from becoming autocratic. These are the two principal points in which the position of the praetor, or, to give him his later title, the consul, differed from that of the king. The change in the method of choice was of less importance at first, since, as we shall shortly find, the popular assembly, in which the consul was chosen, was controlled by the patricians, just as was the senate, which had practically chosen the king. The consul was invested with the imperium, as the king had been, and the strictly political power of the new magistrate was identical with that of the old one. If the experience of the Roman people were not a matter of history, the practicability of a system of government, in which the supreme power was placed in the hands of two magistrates, elected for the same term of office, and could be exercised by each of them at any moment, might well be questioned by any one. However, the system did prove a workable one, although the Romans found it wise a few years after the founding of the republic to modify it slightly by establishing the dictatorship. The incumbent of this office, who was to be appointed at moments of great danger, had no colleague. We have said that the full political power of the king descended to the consul. The new chief magistrate lost some of the religious functions of the old one. Such religious duties as were not necessary preliminaries to political action were assigned to the pontiffs and to a new priest, the rex sacrorum. 26. The Senate. The position of the senate was essentially unchanged, but its composition underwent a change. A certain number of plebeians were admitted to membership in it. The plebeian senators, called conscripti, could, however, take no part in passing the auctoritas patrum, or in choosing an interrex. These duties were always the prerogative of the patrician senators. 27. The People. The centuriate comitia was at the outset a military organization solely, and it was slow in acquiring political functions, but the growth was a natural one. In fact, it was inevitable that in matters touching the safety and general welfare of the community, or the life of Individual citizens, an exclusive body like the curiate comitia should give way before an organization made up of all the fighting men of the state. It would be absurd, in fact, to expect the plebeians to serve faithfully under a leader whom they had had no part in choosing, or to fight in a war which had been declared without consulting them. Under these influences the centuriate assembly gradually acquired a large share of the political functions which under the monarchy had been exercised by the curiate comitia. In it magistrates were elected, appeals were heard, and measures affecting the whole community, excepting the lex de imperio, were considered and acted on. Another factor contributed to its political importance. Under the monarchy, as we have already noticed (p. 16), an appeal to the people in a case of life and death could be had only with the consent of the king. By the lex Valeria (Cic. de Re Publ. II. 53), which tradition assigns to the year 509, the right to an appeal to the comitia centuriata was granted to all citizens, plebeians as well as patricians. This action undoubtedly made frequent meetings of that body necessary. The eighteen centuries of knights acting with the eighty centuries of the first class constituted a majority, and, since most of the rich landholders were probably patricians, the body had a pronounced aristocratic character. For this reason the action of the centuriate comitia in electing magistrates, in passing laws, and in deciding appeals was of no great immediate value to the plebs, but the time was likely to come when the plebeians could exert a controlling influence through an increase in the number of rich plebeian landholders. The organization, but not the character, of the comitia centuriata was affected by the formation of seventeen tribus rusticae, which tradition |