hey had no political power. They
necessarily incurred debts, which were rigorously exacted, and they thus
became the property of their creditors.

(M796) In their despair, they broke out in open rebellion, in the
fifteenth year of the republic, during the consulship of Publius Servilius
and Appius Claudius--the latter a proud Sabine nobleman, who had lately
settled in Rome. They took position on a hill between the Anio and Tiber,
commanding the most fertile part of the Roman territory. The patrician and
wealthy classes, abandoned by the farmers, who tilled the lands, were
compelled to treat, in spite of the opposition of Appius Claudius. And the
result was, that the plebeians gained a remission of their debts, and the
appointment of two magistrates, as protectors, under the name of tribunes.

(M797) This new office introduced the first great change in the condition
of the plebeians. The tribunes had the power of putting a stop to the
execution of the law which condemned debtors to imprisonment or a military
levy. Their jurisdiction extended over every citizen, even over the
consul. There was no appeal from their decisions, except in the Comitia
Tributa, where the plebeian interest predominated--an assembly representing
the thirty Roman tribes, according to the Servian constitution, but which,
at first, had insignificant powers. The persons of the tribunes were
inviolable, but their power was negative. They could not originate laws;
they could insure the equitable administration of the laws, and prevent
wrongs. They had a constitutional veto, of great use at the time, but
which ended in a series of dangerous encroachments.

(M798) The office of aediles followed that of tribunes. There were at first
two, selected from plebeians, whose duty it was to guard the law creating
tribunes, which was deposited in the temple of Vesta, They were afterward
the keepers of the resolutions of the Senate as well as of the plebs, and
had the care of public buildings, and the sanitary police of the city, the
distribution of corn, and of the public lands, the superintendence of
markets and measures, the ordering of festivals, and the duty to see that
no new deities or rites were introduced.

(M799) One year after the victory of the plebeians, a distinguished man
appeared, who was their bitter enemy. This was Caius Marcius, called
Coriolanus, from his bravery at the capture of a Volscian town, Corioli.
When a famine pressed the city, a sup