and fought with the
AEquians all night. The Dictator's troops thus worked without
interruption, and completed the intrenchment by the morning. The AEquians
found themselves hemmed in between the two armies, and were forced to
surrender. The Dictator made them pass under the yoke, which was formed
by two spears fixed upright in the ground, while a third was fastened
across them. Cincinnatus entered Rome in triumph only twenty-four hours
after he had quitted it, having thus saved a whole Roman army from
destruction.

In reading the wars of the early Republic, it is important to recollect
the League formed by Spurius Cassius, the author of the Agrarian Law
between the Romans, Latins, and Hernicans. This League, to which
allusion has been already made, was of the most intimate kind, and the
armies of the three states fought by each other's sides. It was by means
of this League that the AEquians and Volscians were kept in check, for
they were two of the most warlike nations in Italy, and would have been
more than a match for the unsupported arms of Rome.

[Footnote 14: Debtors thus given over to their creditors were called
_Addicti_.]

[Footnote 15: This was called the right of _intercession_, from
_intercedo_, "to come between."]

[Footnote 16: The Tribunes were originally elected at the Comitia of the
Centuries, where the influence of the Patricians was predominant; but by
the Publilian Law, proposed by the tribune Publilius Volero, and passed
B.C. 471, the election was transferred to the Comitia of the Tribes, by
which means the Plebeians obtained the uncontrolled election of their
own officers.]

[Illustration: Tarpeian Rock.]

CHAPTER V.

THE DECEMVIRATE. B.C. 451-449.

From the Agrarian Law of Sp. Cassius to the appointment of the Decemvirs
was a period of more than thirty years. During the whole of this time
the struggle between the Patricians and the Plebeians was increasing.
The latter constantly demanded, and the former as firmly refused, the
execution of the Agrarian Law of Cassius. But, though the Plebeians
failed in obtaining this object, they nevertheless made steady progress
in gaining for themselves a more important position in the city. In B.C.
471 the Publilian Law was carried, by which the election of the Tribunes
and Plebeian AEdiles was transferred from the Comitia of the Centuries to
those of the Tribes.[17] From this time the Comitia of the Tribes may be
regarded as one of the politi