Political Science Of The State

28 POLITICAL s

civil status, the child of a plebeian f.ithrr nr ninthrr mi^ht be
created consul without offence a^anM r«-tij:i«»« Thr snci.il
feeling respecting intermarriage, in wJiiHt tin* tul$ plebeian
alone could have hat! a great intctxM, *<ii.ililr*l iln-m i«» carry
their point The other intiM; have M»»«M fMllmvr*!, hut fur a
proposal that met with success that military liiJmwH with
consular impcriuin shwihl be the chief m»p Uau " MI UK place
of consuls. This may be rrg.wlnl, jirrhajis as a * "Mjm
between the parties, fur members iifrilhrr rmml hit iln*
of military tribune in the army, Bui- u-hai ^h»»us itutthc
concession was wrung from the patrician parly rwryilting
about this magistracy wan left at loose cmK » the smatc was
to make a decision every year whether tin: chief magistrates
should be tribunes with consular powrr, ur *nnsnU, The
former had this to recommend it, that the cxig^iKir1* ^»f war
might require the presence of both consuls w the lirM, and
the military tribunes — three, aft :rwai tin six in iiumb«*r, thra
six for each legion— had been officer* uf the army ftom the
oldest time. Yet the grant of Jw/*rtH*«t t«» limn, an they
might be plebeians, was a giving up of the patrician |«»imt, a*
far as thi non-military imptrmm was cunccrnril. Hut
had no right of triumph, and in some ulhcr respects
below the consuls in dignity,

The office of consular tribunes continued from 310 to 387,
IL CM with some interruptions of years when ccmnul* were
appointed. Of these years two-and-twenty had consuls, and
fifty-one military tribunes for the chief magiitratc*, The
greater part of the time patrician* won the election*, which
seems to show that the poorer plebeians cared litllt? about re-
warding the wealthier men of their order with places ; to them
the disability was of little value.*

Early in this period (prob, in 31 1, U, c.f or in 319), the pa-
tricians managed, by separating from the consulship the
function of holding the census, to constitute a new, very im*

*Comp. I* Unge, i, § 76, Mommsen, Hist* L» 3741 Staat** &,
x» § 165-1 7Si for the consular tribune*.