Ab urbe condita

A Sabine immigrant, Attius Clausus, or if you prefer it, Appius Claudius, the founder of your noble house, was admitted by those old patricians into their number;

do not think it beneath you to admit us into the number of the priests.

We bring with us many distinctions, all those, in fact, which have made you so proud. L. Sextius was the first plebeian to be elected consul, C. Licinius Stolo was the first plebeian Master of the Horse, C. Marcius Rutilus the first plebeian who was both Dictator and censor, Q. Publilius Philo was the first praetor.

We have always heard the same objection raised —that the auspices were solely in your hands, that you alone enjoy the privileges and prerogatives of noble birth, that you alone can legitimately hold sovereign command and take the auspices either in peace or war.

Have you never heard the remark that it was not men sent down from heaven who were originally created patricians, but those who could cite a father,[*](i.e. to prove one's legitimacy as freeborn. The phrase seems to be an attempt to explain the etymology of patri-cuius —pater=“father,” cieo=“cite,” or “mention by name.” ) which is nothing more than saying that they were

freeborn. I can now cite a consul as my father, and my son will be able to cite him as his grandfather. It simply comes to this, Quirites, that we can get nothing without a struggle. It is only a quarrel that the patricians are seeking, they do not care in the least about the

result. I for my part support this measure, which I believe will be for your good and happiness and a blessing to the State, and I hold that you ought to pass it.”

The Assembly was on the point of ordering the voting to proceed, and it was evident that the measure would be adopted, when, on the intervention of some of the tribunes, all further business was adjourned for the day.

On the morrow, the dissentient tribunes having given way, the law was passed amid great enthusiasm. The co-opted pontiffs were P. Decius Mus, the supporter of the measure, P. Sempronius Sophus, C. Marcius Rutilus, and M. Livius Denter. The five augurs who were also taken from the plebs were C. Genucius, P. Aelius Paetus, M. Minucius Faesus, C. Marcius, and T. Publilius.

So the number of the pontiffs was raised to eight and that of the augurs to nine. In[*](The Valerian Law.) this year the consul, M. Valerius, carried a proposal to strengthen the provisions of the law touching the right of appeal.

This was the third time since the expulsion of the kings that this law was re-enacted, and always by the same family. I think that the reason for renewing it so often was solely the fact that the excessive power exercised by a few men was dangerous to the liberties of the plebs.

The Porcian law, however, seems to have been passed solely for the protection of the citizens in life and limb, for it imposed the severest penalties on any one who killed or scourged a Roman citizen.

The Valerian law, it is true, forbade any one who had exercised his right of appeal to be scourged or beheaded, but if any one transgressed its provisions it added no penalty, but simply declared such transgression to be a “wicked act.”

Such was the self-respect and sense of shame amongst the men of those days, that I believe that declaration to have been a sufficiently strong barrier against violations of the law.