Thus the plebs at once gained a voice in the election of aristocratic magistrates. And more; to this centuriate assembly they could now appeal equally with patricians if a consul threatened them with capital punishment. The aristocracy, in securing their own liberties against the power of the executive, could not help going some way towards securing those of the plebs as well.
But this security was really of little value to the plebeian. Beyond doubt, the assembly of centuries was dominated by patrician influence. The mass of small plebeian freeholders had no resource if they were subjected to severe treatment, however legal. The laws or customary rules of debt, for example, were terribly hard ; and all small agriculturists are liable to be driven to borrow by bad seasons or unlucky accidents.[1] The Servian census proves that the Romans were a people of farmers, and it also proves that their holdings differed greatly in size. Under such conditions it is almost inevitable that the small holder should borrow of the greater; and if he does so under such a law as the Roman law of debt, administered by magistrates over whom he has practically no control, it is inevitable that he should come under bondage to his creditor. The only resource the plebs could fall back upon was to unite in depriving the State of their services, to refuse the military service without which the State
- ↑ We have seen the effects at Athens of this inherent weakness of a society of small holders of land (see p. 130). It may be illustrated at the present day from India, Russia, Ireland, and even Switzerland.
