Iah_'

Six years la.ter the tribune, Terentillus Arsa, proposed that a committee should be appointed to codify the Roman law, with a view of putting the two estates as nearly as possible on a footing of equality. This was not entertained until an insurrection broke out, the origin of which is obscure, but which is believed to have originated in a conspiracy on the part of oertain patricians to· murdel' the leading plebeians. The insurgents occupied the Capitol, from which the plebeian soldiery refused to dislodge them until the consul pledged himself that the project of Terentillus, if passed in the assembly of the plebs, should becvme law. This pledge was not redeemed for eight years longer, mainly tlil'ough the opposition of Cincinnatus, him of the plough. Meanwhile, the most outrageous attempts were made to de:prive the plebeians of the rights they had already gamed, and even to reduce them to the state of subjection in which they had been before the secession to the sacred mount. These efforts were frustrated, and, though many prominent plebeians were assassinated, several important advantages were secured by their order; the number of tribunes was now raised from five to ten.