this usurpation was really countenanced by the Patriciate, and that they aimed at staving off indefinitely the inevitable assaults of the Plebeians on the magistracy by indefinitely perpetuating this rule of ten annual commissioners without appeal; but they tolerated their rule, and backed up their excuses for not retiring, until two acts of tyranny raised mutinies in both the Roman camps. The plebeian soldiers cast off their allegiance to the ruling board, and first, under military leaders of their own choosing, occupied the Aventine; they then, accompanied by the majority of the unarmed Plebeians of Rome, wended their way a second time to the Mons Sacer (449 B.C.). The Senate in alarm sent two of its members, Valerius and Horatius, who were of good repute among the Plebs, to ask their wishes. The answer was: amnesty for the breach of military discipline involved in the secession; the restoration of the provocatio (which meant the dissolution of the decemvirate) and of the tribunician power.[1] The demands had not increased since the first secession; protection was all that the Plebeians yet demanded.
Everything was granted; the decemviri were forced by the Senate to an unwilling abdication; the tribunate was re-established, and, as no plebeian magistrate existed, the unusual step was taken of having the election conducted by the pontifex maximus.[2] A resolution was then elicited from the Plebs by the tribune Duilius that consuls should be created subject to the right of appeal. It was accepted by the Senate,[3] who appointed an interrex. The comitia of the centuries returned Valerius and Horatius. Under the guidance of the consuls the assembly proceeded to pass a series of laws (the leges Valeriae Horatiae) which more than satisfied the demands of the Plebs. One guaranteed the perpetuity of the provocatio by the enactment that "no one should in future create a magistrate from whom
- ↑ Liv. iii. 53.
- ↑ ib. 54 "ibi extemplo, pontifice maximo comitia habente, tribunos plebis creaverunt."
- ↑ ib. "Confestim de consulibus creandis cum provocatione M. Duilius rogationem pertulit." Such a resolution would not need confirmation by the people, as, after the fall of the decemvirs, an interregnum would naturally ensue; and this was a matter for the Senate. But Livy also represents the tribune as (in accordance with a senatus consultum) passing the act of amnesty, iii. 54 "Tribunatu inito, L. Icilius extemplo plebem rogavit, et plebs scivit, ne cui fraudi esset secessio ab decemviris facta." In later Roman law amnesty resides with the Senate.
