6.37
They
were denouncing these indignities in the ears of men, apprehensive for their
own safety, who listened to them with stronger indignation than the men
who were speaking felt. They went on to assert that after all there would be
no limit to the seizure of land by the patricians or the murder of the plebs by
the deadly usury until the plebs elected one of the consuls from their own
ranks as a guardian of their liberties. The tribunes of the plebs were now
objects of contempt since their power was shattering itself by their own veto.
There could be no fair or just administration as long as the executive power
was in the hands of the other party, while they had only the right of
protesting by their veto; nor would the plebs ever have an equal share in the
government till the executive authority was thrown open to them; nor would
it be enough, as some people might suppose, to allow plebeians to be voted
for at the election of consuls. Unless it was made obligatory for one consul
at least to be chosen from the plebs, no plebeian would ever become consul.
Had they forgotten that after they had decided that consular tribunes should
be elected in preference to consuls in order that the highest office might be
open to plebeians, not a single plebeian was elected consular tribune for
four-and-forty years? What did they suppose? Did they imagine that the men
who had been accustomed to fill all the eight places when consular tribunes
were elected would of their own free will consent to share two places with
the plebs, or that they would allow the path to the consulship to be opened
when they had so long blocked the one to the consular tribuneship? The
people would have to secure by law what they could not gain by favour, and
one of the two consulships would have to be placed beyond dispute as open
to the plebs alone, for if it were open to a contest it would always be the
prey of the stronger party. The old, oft-repeated taunt could no longer be
made now that there were no men amongst the plebs suitable for curule
magistracies. Was the government carried on with less spirit and energy after
the consulship of P. Licinius Calvus, who was the first plebeian to be elected
to that post, than during the years when only patricians held the office? Nay,
on the contrary, there had been some cases of patricians being impeached
after their year of office, but none of plebeians. The quaestors also, like the
consular tribunes, had a few years previously begun to be elected from the
plebs; in no single instance had the Roman people had any cause to regret
those appointments. The one thing that was left for the plebs to strive for
was the consulship. That was the pillar, the stronghold of their liberties. If
they arrived at that, the Roman people would realise that monarchy had been
completely banished from the City, and that their freedom was securely
established, for in that day everything in which the patricians were
pre-eminent would come to the plebs -power, dignity, military glory, the
stamp of nobility; great things for themselves to enjoy, but greater still as
legacies to their children. When they saw that speeches of this kind were
listened to with approval, they brought forward a fresh proposal, viz. that
instead of the duumviri (the two keepers of the Sacred Books) a College of
Ten should be formed, half of them plebeians and half patricians. The
meeting of the Assembly, which was to pass these measures, was adjourned
till the return of the army which was besieging Velitrae.