Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

PLEBES. PLEBES. 925
Luceres had becn to the first two tribes, before the the amount of their property. Taxation and the
timue of Tarquinius. (Fest. s. v. Sex Vestae Sacer- military duties were arranged according to these
dotes.; Cic. dz Re Pz6bl. ii. 20; Liv. i. 35, 47.) classes in such a manner, that the heavier burdens
This measure, although an advantage to the most fell upon the wealthier classes. The whole body
distinguished plebeian families, did not benefit the of citizens thus divided was formed into a great
plebeians as an order, for the new patricians national assembly called comitiatus maxilnus or
must have become alienated front the commonalty, comitia centuriata. [ComrTIA, p. 333, &c.] In
while the patricians as a body were considerably this assembly the plebeians now met the patricians
strengthened by the accession of the new families. apparently on a footing of equality, but the votes
It was reserved to his successor, Servius Tullius, were distributed in such a way that it was always
to give to the commlonalty a regular internal organi- in the power of the wealthiest classes, to which the
zation and to determine their relations to the pa- patricians naturally belonged, to decide a question
tricians. The intention of this king was not to before it was put to the vote of the poorer classes.
upset the old constitution, but only to enlarge it so A great number of such noble plebeian families, as
as to render it capable of receiving within itself after the subjugation of the Latin towns had not
the new elements of the state. He first divided been admitted into the curies by Tarquinius Pristhe city into four, and then the subject country cus, were now constituted by Servius into a number
around, which was inhabited by plebeians, into of equites, with twelve sufifagia in the comitia
twenty-six regions or local tribes (Liv. i. 43; centuriata. [EQUITEs, p. 471.] Lastly, Servius
Dionys. iv. 14, &c.), and in these regions he Tullius is said to have regulated the commerassigned lots of ialnd to those plebeians who were cium between the two orders by about fifty laws.
yet without landed property. Niebuhr (ii. p. 162) (Dionys. iv. 13; NotLovs robs [El' o'uWaXaK7-L.
thinks that these allotmlents consisted of seven Icos cral rovs 7repl -&Ov a8uc/'wv; compare v. 2,
jugera each, an opinion which is controverted by vi. 22; Gbttling, p. 240; Becker,. c. p. 1 56.)
GCttling (p. 239, &c.). As regards the four city- In this constitution the plebeians, as such, did
tribes, it should be observed that the Aventine inot obtain admission to the senate, nor to the highest
and the Capitol were not contained in themn: the magistracy, nor to any of the priestly offices. To
former forming a part of the country tribes, and all these offices the patricians aloile thought them.
the latter being, as it were, the city of the gods. selves enltitled by divine right. The plebeians
(Varro, cle Liy. Lat. v. 56, ed. A[iiller.) The also continued to be excluded from occupying any
twenty-six country tribes are not mentioned by portion of the public land, lwhlich as yet was only,ivy in his account of the Servian constitution, and possessed by the patricians, and were only allowed.
where lie first speaks of the -vwhole number of tribes to keep their cattle upon the common pasture, for
(i;. 21; compare Dionys. aii. 64), he only men- -vvwhich they had to pay to the state a certain stun.
tions twenty-one instead of thirty. Niebuhr (i. It is true that by the acquisition of wealth pleo
p. 418) is undoubtedly right in reconciling this beieans might becomle members of the first property
number with the thirty tribes of Servius by the cl ass, and that thus their votes in the comniti
sllpposition, that in the war with Porsenna Rome might become of the same weight as those of the.
lost one third of her territory, i. c. tell tribes, so wealthy patricians, but the possibility of acquiring
that there xwere only twenty left. As, there- such wealth was diminished by their being exfore, after the ilmmigration of the Claudii and their cluded from the use of the ager publicus. Niebuhr
clients, a new tribe vas formed (Liv. ii. 16), (i. p. 430, &c.) inlfers firom the nature of the Ser-,,ivy is right in mentioning only twenty-one tribes. viai constitution that it mutst have granted to the
These thirty Servian tribes did lnot, at least origi- plebeians greater advantages than those mentioned
nally, contain any patricians, and ecen after the by our historians: lie conceives that it gave to
Claudii had come to Rome, it is not necessary to them the right of appeal to their own assembly, and
suppose that the gens Claudia, wlhich wvas raised to to pass senltence upon such as grossly infringed their
the rank of patrician, was contained in the new liberties, in short that the Servian constitution
tribe, but the new tribe probably consisted of their placed them on tile same footing in regard to the
clients to whoml lands were assigned beyond the patricians, as wvas afterwards permanenltly effected
Anio. (Liv. 1. c.; compare TIIBus.) Somle of the by the laws of C. Licinius and L. Sextius. There
clients of the patricians, howvever, were probably is no doubt that such might anld should have been
conltained in the Servian tribes. (Dionys. iv. 22, the case, but the arguments xwhich hlie brings for&c.) Each tribe had its praefect called tribunus. ward in support of his hypothesis do not appear to
(Dionys. iv. 14; Appian, B. C. iii. 23; TmIBUNUs.) be convincing, as has been pointed out by Gbttliing
The tribes had also their own sacra, festivals, and (p. 265, &c.). All that we know for certain is,
meetings (cornitia tribute), which were convoked that Servius gave to the body of the plebeians an
by their tribunes. internal organlization by the establishment of the
This division into tribes wvith tribunes at their thirty plebeian tribes, and that in the colllitia cenbeads wras no more than ai internal organization turiata li he placed them, at least apparently, on a
tf the plebeians, analogous to the division of the footing of equality with the populus. Whether he
patricians into thirty curiae, without conferring linteIlded to do more, or would ]-Xhave dolle more ir
ulPon them the right to interfere in any way in the it had been in his power, is a different question.
management of public affairs, or in the elections, But facts, like those stated above, were, sufficient
which were left entirely to the senate and the at a later period, when the benefits actuallly concuriae. These rights, however, they obtained by ferred upon the plebeians were taken alvay froml
another regulation of Servius Tullins, which wxas them, to make the grateful comonalty look upols
nmade wholly independent of the thirty tribes. For that king as its great patron, and even regard himi
this purpose he instituted a census, and divided as having granted all those rights which subsethe whole body of Roman citizens, plebeians as quently they acquired after many years of hard
well as patricians, into five classes, according to striggle. Thus what he actually haid done, was