A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

Hortensian Law 359
vote or following that of Stolo, by which they were to Licinius
Stolo;
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1 1 1 1
reckon the previous interest toward the principal and re- p. 356 f.
ceive the remainder in triennial payments.
For the time
being the weaker party, dreading lest it might lose all, paid
court to them, and the wealthier class, encouraged to
think it would not be compelled to adopt either course,
maintained a hostile attitude. But when the revolted
party proceeded to press matters somewhat, both sides
changed their positions. The debtors were no longer satisfied
with either plan, and the nobles thought themselves
lucky if they should not be deprived of their principal.
Hence the dispute was not decided immediately, but afterward
they prolonged their rivalry in a spirit of contentiousness,
and did not act at all in their usual character.
Finally the people made peace in spite of the fact that the
nobles were unwilling to remit much more than they had
originally expected; however, the more they beheld their
creditors yielding,
the more they were emboldened, as if
they were successful by a kind of right; and consequently
they regarded the various concessions almost as matters
of course and strove for yet more, using as a stepping-stone
to that end the fact that they had already obtained something.
After great and long-continued seditions due to debts
Livy,
, ,
the plebs
, ,
seceded to
T
the
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T 1 1 .1
Jamculum, whence they were
Epitome,
brought back by Quintus Hortensius as dictator.
^j^^ j^^
After the secession of the plebs to the Janiculum, Q. 287 B.C.
Hortensius dictator moved and carried a law in the .^scule-
roTHistory^'
^"^'-
tum that whatever the plebs ordered should be binding on
^°' 37-
,, , . . Gaius i. 3.
all the citizens. A plebiscite
Formerly the patricians maintained that they were not
bound by plebiscites, as the latter were passed without
cL triDtli cLS~
,
their authorization; but afterward the Hortensian statute sembb
pr^o^posecTby
a tribune to