r the
senate were about to do or vote anything and a single tribune opposed
it, the action or the vote became null and void. As time went on, they
were allowed or allowed themselves to summon the senate, to punish
whoever disobeyed them, to practice divination, and to hold court. And
in case they were refused permission to do anything, they gained their
point by their incontestable opposition to every project undertaken by
others. For they introduced laws to the effect that whoever should
obstruct them by deed or word, be he private citizen or magistrate,
should be "hallowed" and incur pollution. This being "hallowed" meant
destruction; for this was the name applied to everything (as, for
instance, a victim) that was consecrated for slaughter. The tribunes
themselves were termed by the multitude "sacrosanct", since they
obtained sacred enclosures for the shelter of such as invoked them.
For _sacra_ among the Romans means "walls", and _sancta_ "sacred".
Many of their actions were unwarrantable, for they threw even consuls
into prison and put men to death without granting them a hearing.
Nobody ventured to oppose them; or, in case any one did, he became
himself "hallowed." If, however, persons were condemned not by all the
tribunes, they would call to their help those who had not concurred in
the verdict, and so they went duly through the forms of court
procedure before the tribunes themselves or before some arbiters or
before the populace, and became the possession of the side that won.
In the course of time the number of the tribunes was fixed at ten,
[Sidenote: FRAG. 16^7] AND AS A RESULT OF THIS MOST OF THEIR POWER WAS
OVERTHROWN. FOR AS THOUGH BY NATURE (BUT REALLY, OF COURSE, BY REASON
OF JEALOUSY) FELLOW OFFICIALS INVARIABLY QUARREL; AND IT IS DIFFICULT
FOR A NUMBER OF MEN, ESPECIALLY IN A POSITION OF INFLUENCE, TO ATTAIN
HARMONY. No sooner did outsiders, planning to wreck their influence,
raise factional issues to the end that dissension might make them
weaker, than the tribunes actually attached themselves some to one
party, some to another. [Sidenote: FRAG. 16^7] IF EVEN ONE OF THEM
OPPOSED A MEASURE, he rendered the decisions of the rest null and
void.

Now at first they did not enter the senate-house, but sitting at the
entrance watched proceedings, and in case aught failed to please them,
they would show resistance. Next they were invited inside. Later,
however, the ex-tribunes were numbered with the senator