Political Science Of The State

poi.rnt'Ai. srtr.
to be chosen in equal number front the lun ordm. Thin
was the more easily carried, because the c»lii«:r . <
was to consult and report up»n the Sibyllim* h»*ufc
oracles, and although their functions wm* vrry in'p*>rt.tnl an
relating to the introduction of new religious ntrs, thry had
little connection wilh the old religious rilrs **f K**wr "1 he
Ogtilnian law, called after two tribunes l»r,itin;; *h'»t IMIIU* and
passed in 454 r. CM required that four plrbci.in ntrwln'M
should be added to the college of powiikivs and 1U<* t*» thai
of augurs, so that the fir>t would cun^t «»f ci^*l viml iher
other of nine** (Livy, x., 7j, I'hrse mt'inlnr^, mtc:«irding lo
an old Roman usage, were added, it would scrm, by o»»p-
tation; until, in 649 or 650 u. C,t by a law t*f iltr liibunc
DomitiitH, a vote of n minority of the tribes bring convoked
for the purpose, prescribed to the collegia whutii lliry **b«mld
associate with themselves by coopt*uion, |C/«*otp, t'ic. tic L
agrar,, ii.» 7*)t Three or four colleges of priests and rrli-
gious brethren remained in the exclusive pmsessinn of the
patricians; these were the three greater (UimtitrH, the rex
sacrorum, the Salii, and probably the fratrc* arvalcn, nmtc of
them of political importance,
The patricians, being skilled in the knoivledgc of forms
legal and religious, kept the people dependent on them for
information in this respect until the time of Appitt* Claudiuft
the blind (450 U* C,)» who in said by a Roman lawyer tu have
reduced the Ajp/> actwttes to n form, and whose scribe nurrep*
titiously disclosed them to the people ; or, m I'liny i^ayi,
obtained their favor by making known the days on which
law business could be transacted, This knowledge hud been
confined to the pontifices, or at least was so little known*
that the people had to learn what days were such by daily
inquiries made to a few of the principal men. This event
was nearly contemporary with the Ogulnian law, and may
*Comp. Marquardt in Beker-Harquardt's Hflm. Alterth.,
*9*» 347-
f Comp, Orclli's index legum, in his e& of Cic. Qfri iriHi, a
and see Mommsen's R, Staatsn, it., i, as, a&