Solon,
and to make themselves acquainted with the institutions, customs, and
laws of the other states of Greece.

The year was peaceful as regards foreign wars; the following one, when
Publius Curiatius and Sextus Quinctilius were consuls, was still more
quiet, owing to the tribunes observing uninterrupted silence, which
was occasioned in the first place by their waiting for the return of
the ambassadors who had gone to Athens, and for the account of the
foreign laws; in the next place, two grievous calamities arose at the
same time, famine and pestilence, destructive to man, and equally
so to cattle. The lands were left desolate; the city exhausted by
a constant succession of deaths. Many illustrious families were in
mourning. The Flamen Quirinalis, [40]Servius Cornelius, died; also the
augur, Gaius Horatius Pulvillus; in his place the augurs elected Gaius
Veturius, and that with all the more eagerness, because he had been
condemned by the commons. The consul Quinctilius died, and four
tribunes of the people. The year was rendered a melancholy one by
these manifold disasters; as far as foreign foes were concerned there
was perfect quiet. Then Gaius Menenius and Publius Sestius Capitolinus
were elected consuls. Nor in that year was there any foreign war: but
disturbances arose at home. The ambassadors had now returned with the
Athenian laws; the tribunes therefore insisted the more urgently that
a beginning should at length be made of compiling the laws. It was
resolved that decemvirs should be elected to rule without appeal, and
that there should be no other magistrate during that year. There
was, for a considerable time, a dispute whether plebeians should
be admitted among them: at length the point was conceded to the
patricians, provided that the Icilian law regarding the Aventine and
the other devoting laws were not repealed.

In the three hundred and second year after the foundation of Rome, the
form of government was a second time changed, the supreme power being
transferred from consuls to decemvirs as it had passed before from
kings to consuls. The change was less remarkable, because not of long
duration; for the joyous commencement of that government afterward ran
riot through excess. On that account the sooner did the arrangement
fall to the ground, and the practice was revived, that the name and
authority of consuls should be committed to two persons. The decemvirs
appointed were, Appius Claudius, Titus Ge