31 1^ INTRODUCTION 1 3 



by the patricians after the expulsion of the kings, forced 

 the plebeian population to seek ways and means of better- 

 ing their political and economic conditions. Assemblies of 

 the plebs and resolutions and decrees, plebiscites passed in 

 these assemblies, were the outcome. 



With the creation of the office of the tribimi plehis in 

 the year 494^ these assemblies seem to have gained official 

 recognition and stability in so far as their convocation was 

 one of the duties and rights of these newly created tribiim 

 plehis. Their historical status, however, seems to be some- 

 what obscure. Borgeaud, after reviewing the prevalent 

 opposing opinions, concludes that the definition of the pleh- 

 iscitum as a decree enacted in the comitia tribiita, the as- 

 sembly of the Roman tribus, is incorrect. The comitia 

 tributa included, at least after the law of the Twelve Tables 

 was passed, also the patricians, distributed, like the plebeians, 

 among the three local tribus, a view entertained by Niebuhr, 

 Becker-Marquardt, Walter, Blasel, and others.* 



The Roman jurists, however, are very emphatic and ex- 

 plicit on the one point that the plebiscitum is a decree by the 

 plebeian members of the populace only. Gains, for instance, 

 defines the plebiscite in a manner which allows of no doubt : 

 "Lex est quod populus iubet atque constituit. Plebiscitum 

 est quod plebs iubet atque constituit. Plebs autem a populo 

 eo distat, quod populi appellatione universi cives signifi- 

 cantur, connumeratis etiam patriciis ; plebis autem appella- 

 tione sine patriciis ceteri cives significantur."*^ In Poste's 

 translation" : " A statute is a command and ordinance of 

 the people : a plebiscite is a command and ordinance of the 

 commonalty. The commonalty and the people are thus dis- 

 tinguished : the people are all the citizens, including the 

 patricians ; the commonalty are all the citizens, except the 



8 E. Meyer, Der Ursprung des Tribunals, in Hermes, vol. xxx, 

 p. I flF. 



* BorReaud, pp. 5^59- 



•^ Gains, Institutioncs, I, 3. 



" Gai liistitiitioiics, or Institutes of Roman Law, with a translation 

 by Edward I'oslc, 41*1 ed., E. A. Wliittuck, Oxford, i<)04, p. i. 



