provisions of the twelve tables, but the suspension of the right of appeal during the existence of the decemvirate justified the repetition. the dictatorship must have been exempted from the action of this law. Another law of the same year established the tribunate on a surer basis than ever. A still more important piece of legislation, who passage Valerius and Horatius secured, was an enactment with reference to the validity of plebiscita. Livy summarizes (III. 55. 3) its contents in this wise: quod tributim plebes iussisset populum teneret. It is impossible, however, that the unsupported action of the plebeian tribal assembly should have been binding on the whole people. The fact that it was necessary to secure the approval of the senate in the case of the Licinian laws in 367 (Liv. VI. 42. 9) points to the probability that, after the passage of the leges Valeriae Horatiae, the action of the plebeian tribal assembly acquired the force of law, in case the auctoritas patrum was secured. The constitutional importance of the Valerio-Horatian measure lies in the fact that it gave to the tribune, the plebeian leader, the right to initiate legislation, and to plebeian political aspirations the strength which came to them through their formulation by a legally recognized legislative assembly. It will be seen that this action involves a complete change in the nature of the tribunate. It gives a positive character to it for the first time. The importance of the negative functions of that office also was augmented shortly before the establishment of the decemvirate by the increase of the number of tribunes to ten. This increase made it possible for them to extend their protective power over a greater number of plebeians. The great constitutional gains which the plebeians made during the period under consideration, from the first to the second secession, bear a close relation to the fact that Rome was
