A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

5. L.Julius, VOP. F. C. N., JULUS, son of No. 3, one of the three consular tribunes in B. C. 438. (Liv. 4.16; Diod. 12.38.) He was magister equitum in B. C. 431 to the dictator, A. Postumius Tubertus, who left him and the consul for the year, C. Julius Mento, in charge of the city, while he marched against the Aequians and Volscians. (Liv. 4.26, 27; Diod. 12.64, who places the dictatorship in the preceding year.) In the following year, B. C. 430, L. Julius (erroneously called by Cicero C. Julius) was consul with C. Papirius Crassus. Having learnt from the treachery of one of the tribunes, that the latter intended to bring forward a law which was much wished for by the people, imposing a pecuniary fine instead of the one in cattle, which had been fixed by the Aternia Tarpeia lex., B. C. 454, the consuls anticipated their purpose, and proposed a law by which a small sum of money was to be paid in place of each head of cattle (multarum aestimatio). This law was occasioned, according to Cicero, by the censors, L. Papirius and P. Pinarius, having, through the infliction of fines, deprived private persons of an immense quantity of cattle, and brought them into the possession of the state. (Liv. 4.30; Diod. 12.72; Cic. de Rep. 2.35; Niebuhr, Rom. List. vol. ii. note 690.)