File:The story of the greatest nations, from the dawn of history to the twentieth century - a comprehensive history, founded upon the leading authorities, including a complete chronology of the world, and (14578779268).jpg

Identifier: storyofgreatestn02elli (find matches)
Title: The story of the greatest nations, from the dawn of history to the twentieth century : a comprehensive history, founded upon the leading authorities, including a complete chronology of the world, and a pronouncing vocabulary of each nation
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Ellis, Edward Sylvester, 1840-1916 Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis), 1870-1942
Subjects: World history
Publisher: New York : F.R. Niglutsch
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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ead of building for the future, the afflicted people thought only of their pres-ent wants. Rome was indeed compelled to pass through the pangs of transformation,for hardly had the city been reared, when the patricians again asserted theirclaims, and, though the twelve tables of the law had been reserved from theruins, they demanded a revival of the fearful severities of the acts governingthe debtor and creditor. The plebeians had been reduced to the greatest pov-erty and distress through the Gallic invasions, and the measures insisted uponby the patricians, if carried out, would crush them into abject slavery. It need hardly be said that the quarrel was of the most bitter nature, and itcame to a crisis in b. c. 376, when two of the ablest tribunes of the people,Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextus, proposed their plan for the settlement ofthe troubles. To meet the unbearable political inequality, they demanded thatthe consuls should be restored as the chief magistrates and that one of the
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Rome—Democracy Established 319 two annually chosen should always be a plebeian. To abolish the grindingpoverty of the plebeians, the new plan provided that the interest already paidon debts should be deducted from the principal, and the remainder of the debtshould be paid in three years; that the public lands, hitherto held almost en-tirely by the rich, should be redistributed so that no person should have morethan about three hundred acres, the remainder to be divided in small portionsamong the plebeians. The Licitiian Rogations, or new plan of constitution, was fiercely fought bythe patricians, but the plebeians were equally resolute, and their tribunes pre-vented the election of officers and military levies. The patricians were help-less, and, in B.C. 367, the plan as outlined became Roman law. Lucius Sextuswas elected consul the following year, and all the other offices, of whatevernature, were thrown open to the plebeians, and perfect political equality wasat last established i

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