assed at the Comitia of the Tribes the
full power of laws binding upon the whole nation. From this time we hear
of no more civil dissensions till the times of the Gracchi, a hundred
and fifty years afterward, and the Lex Hortensia may therefore be
regarded as the termination of the long struggle between the two orders.

[Footnote 20: _A Rogatio_ differed from a _Lex_, as a _Bill_ from an
_Act_ of Parliament. A Rogatio was a law submitted to the assembly of
the people, and only became a Lex when enacted by them.]

[Footnote 21: A _Jugerum_ was rather more than half an acre.]

[Footnote 22: _Ut plebiscita omnes Quirites tenerent._]

[Footnote 23: See p. 40. (The end of Chapter V.--Transcriber)]

[Illustration: Ruins at Capua.]

CHAPTER VIII.

FROM THE LICINIAN ROGATIONS TO THE END OF THE SAMNITE WARS. B.C.
367-290.

United at home, the Romans were now prepared to carry on their foreign
wars with more vigor; and their conquests of the Samnites and Latins
made them the virtual masters of Italy. But the years which immediately
followed the Licinian laws were times of great suffering. A pestilence
raged in Rome, which carried off many of the most distinguished men, and
among others the aged Camillus (B.C. 362). The Tiber overflowed its
banks, the city was shaken by earthquakes, and a yawning chasm opened in
the forum. The soothsayers declared that the gulf could never be filled
up except by throwing into it that which Rome held most valuable. The
tale runs that, when every one was doubting what the gods could mean, a
noble youth named M. Curtius came forward, and, declaring that Rome
possessed nothing so valuable as her brave citizens, mounted his steed
and leaped into the abyss in full armor, whereupon the earth closed over
him. This event is assigned to the year 362 B.C.

During the next few years the Gauls renewed their inroads, of which we
have already spoken, and in the course of which Manlius Torquatus and
Valerius Corvus gained such glory. The Romans steadily extended their
dominion over the southern part of Etruria and the country of the
Volscians, and the alliance with the Latins was renewed. Fifty years had
elapsed since the capture of the city by the Gauls, and Rome was now
strong enough to enter into a contest with the most formidable enemy
which her arms had yet encountered. The SAMNITES were at the height of
their power, and the contest between them and the Romans was virtually
for the supremac