Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/63

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THE LAW OF PUBLILIUS VOLERO.
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number of plebeians, were consequently deprived of their suffrage, since they had no land. On the other hand, as the freeholders voted without any distinction as to the size of their farms, the great plebeian landowners did not possess any better suffrage than the smallest farmers, and the rich did not have any such preponderance in the plebeian as in the centuriate assembly. The reorganized assembly in the main consisted of, and was controlled by, the independent middle classes.