",.",] it, Modern Pa1'altel.

The deposition of the Decemvirate took place B.O. 449; several laws were passed securing the liberties of the plebeians; two of the late usurpers, dreading the just punishment of their crimes, committed suicide, the others were banished. The following year exhibited the first indication of a closer approximation of the two orders; the patricians being now distributed among the local tribes, two patricians were elected tlibunes. Three years later one of the tribunes proposed the repeal of the law forbidding intermarriage between the two orders. Another pl'oposed that thenceforth each order should furnish one of the two consuls. The former bill was passed, the latter rejected, but a compromise was agreed upon-that in any yell.r the senate might order tlie election, not of two consuls, but of an indefinite number of "consular tlibunes," having the powers of consuls, but being inferior in dignity; these were to be taken from either order indiscriminately. Accordingly ·~he next year, 444, consular tlibunes were elected; they were all patricians; the plebs, content with having acquired the right to share in the highest magistracy, forbol'e to exercise it.