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

PLEBES. PLEBISCITUM. 927
appear in the possession of the right to occupy parts. pose of extending their privileges; but Ambrosch
of the ager publicus. (Livy, vii. 16; Niebuhr, iii. (Studien ui. Andeutungen, p. 95) has rendered it
p. 1, &c.) In B. c. 366, L. Sextius Lateranus was more than probable that the office of curio maxi.
the first plebeian consul. The patricians, however, mus was at that time of greater political import.
who always contrived to yield no more than what ance than is generally believed. It is also well
it was absolutely impossible for them to retain, known that such priestly offices as had little or no
stripped the consulship of a considerable part of its connection with the management of public affairs,
power and transferred it to two new curule offices, such as that of the rex sacrorumn, the flamines,
viz., that of praetor and of curule aedile. [AEDILES; salii, and others, were never coveted by the plePRAETOR.] But after such great advantages had beians, and continued to be held by the patricians
been once gained by the plebeians, it was impos- down to the latest times. (Dionys. v. 1,; Cic. pro
sible to stop them in their progress towards a perfect Doml. 14; Fest. s. v. 11cjolr. flam.)
equality of political rights with the patricians. In After the passing of the Hortensian law, the
B. C. 356 C. Marcius Rutilus was the first plebeian political distinction between patricians and pledictator; in B. C. 351, the censorship was thrown beians ceased, and with a few unimportant exopen to the plebeians, and in B. C. 336 the praetor- ceptions, both orders were placed on a footing of
ship. The Ogulhian law, in B. c. 300, also opened perfect equality. Henceforth the name populus is
to them the offices of pontifex and augur. These sometimes applied to the plebeians alone, and
advantages were, as might be supposed, not gained sometimes to the whole body of Roman citizens,
without the fiercest opposition of the patricians as assembled in the comitia centuriata or tributa.
and even after they were gained and sanctioned by (Liv. xxvii. 5; Cic. ad Att. iv. 2; Gell. x. 20.)
law, the patricians exerted every means to obstruct The term plebs or plebecula, on the other hand,
the operation of the law. Such fraudulent attempts was applied in a loose manner of speaking to the
led, in B. c. 286, to the last secession of the ple- multitude or populace in opposition to the nobiles
beians, after which, however, the dictator Q. Hor- or the senatorial party. (Sallust, Jog. 63; Cic.
tensius successfully and permanently reconciled the ad Att. i. 16; HI-or. Ep~ist. ii. 1. 158; Hirt. Bell.
two orders, secured to the plebeians all the rights A4lex. 5, &c.)
they had acquired until then, and procured for their A person who was born a plebeian, collld only
plebiscita the full power of leges b'nding upon the be raised to the rank of a patrician by a lex curiata,
whole nation. as was sometimes done during the kingly period,
In a political point of view the distinction be- and in the early times of the republic. Caesar was
tween patricians and plebeians now ceased, and the first who ventured in his own name to raise
Rome, internally strengthened and united, entered plebeians to the rank of patricians, and his example
upon the happiest period of her history. How was followed by the emperors. [PATRICII.]
completely the old distinction was now forgotten, It frequently occurs in the history of Rome that
is evident from the fact that henceforth both con- one and the same gens contain plebeian as wvell
suls were frequently plebeians. The government as patrician families. In the gens Cornelia, for
of Rome had thus gradually changed from an op- instance, we find the plebeian families of the Balbi,
pressive oligarchy into a moderate democracy, in Mammulae, Mertlae, &ec., along with the patrician
which each party had its proper illfluence and the Scipiones, Sullae, Lentuli, &c. The occurrence of
power of checking the other, if it should venture to this phenomenon may be accounted for in different
assume more than it could legally claim. It was ways. It may have been, that one branch of a
this constitution, the work of many generations, plebeian family was made patrician, while the
that excited the admiration of the great statesman others remained plebeians. (Cic. Brut. 16, de Leg.
Polybius. ii. 3; Sueton, Ner. 1.) It may also have hapWe stated above that the plebeians during their pened that two families had the same nomen genlstruggle with the patricians did not seek power for tilicium without being actual members of the same
the mere gratification of their ambition, but as a gens. (Cic. Brut. 16; Tacit. Annal. iii. 48.) Agnain,
necessary means to protect themselves from op- a patrician family might go over to the plebeians,
pression. The abuse which they, or rather their and as such a family continued to bear the name
tribunes, made of their power, belongs to a much of its patrician gens, this gens apparently contained
later time, and no traces of it appear until more a plebeian family. (Liv. iv. 16; Plin. H. N. xviii.
than half a century after the Hortensian law; and 4.) At the time when no connlubium existed beeven then, this power was only abused by indivi- tween the two orders, a marriage between a patriduals, and not on behalf of the real plebeians, but cian and a plebeian had the consequence, that the
of a degenerating democratical party, which is un- same nomen gentilicium belonged to persons of the
fortunately designated by later writers by the name two orders. (Niebuhr, ii. p. 337, n. 756; Suet.
of plebeians, and thus has become identified with Auzg. 2.) When a peregrinus obtained the civitas
them. Those who know the immense influence through the influence of a patrician, or when a
which religion and its public ministers had upon slave was emancipated by his patrician master,
the whole management of the state, will not they generally adopted the nomen gentilicium of
wonder that the plebeians in their contest with their benefactor (Cic. ad lsame. xiii. 35, 36, c.'irr.
the aristocracy exerted themselves as much to gain iv. 17; Appian, Civil. 100), and thus appear to
access to the priestly offices as to those of a purely belong to the same gens with him. (Comp. Becker,
political character; as the latter in reality would 1. c. p. 133, &c.; Ihne, 1. c.) [L. S.j
have been of little avail without the former. The PLEBISCIUTUM, a name properly applied to
office of curio maximus, which the plebeians sought a law passed at the Comitia Tributa on the rogaand obtained nearly a century after the Ogulnian tion of a Tribune. According to Laelius Felix
law (Liv. xxvii. 6, 8), seems indeed to afford (Gellins, xv. 27, and the note in the edition of
ground for supposing that in this instance the ple- Gronovius), he who had authority to convene not
beians sought a distinction merely fbr the pur- the universus populus, but only a part, could hold