represent the senate, the
livery answer for the populus, patricians, or comitia curiata, and the
general body of other inhabitants will correspond with the plebs.

[7] There were certain sacrifices which the Romans believed could only
be offered by a king; after the abolition of royalty, a priest, named
the petty sacrificing king, (rex sacrificulus,) was elected to perform
this duty.

[8] Perhaps it would be more accurate to say the _exclusive_ right of
legislation; for it appears that the comitia centuriata were sometimes
summoned to give their sanction to laws which had been previously
enacted by the curiae.

[9] See Chap. XII.

[10] The Romans were previously acquainted with that great principle
of justice, the right of trial by a person's peers. In the earliest
ages the patricians had a right of appeal to the curiae; the Valerian
laws extended the same right to the plebeians.

[11] The senators were called conscript fathers, (patres conscripti,)
either from their being enrolled on the censor's list, or more
probably from the addition made to their numbers after the expulsion
of the kings, in order to supply the places of those who had been
murdered by Tarquin. The new senators were at first called conscript,
and in the process of time the name was extended to the entire body.

* * * * *

CHAPTER V.

THE ROMAN TENURE OF LAND--COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.

Each rules his race, his neighbour not his care,
Heedless of others, to his own severe.--_Homer_.

[As this chapter is principally designed for advanced students, it has
not been thought necessary to add questions for examination.]

The contests respecting agrarian laws occupy so large a space in Roman
history, and are so liable to be misunderstood, that it is necessary
to explain their origin at some length. According to an almost
universal custom, the right of conquest was supposed to involve the
property of the land. Thus the Normans who assisted William I. were
supposed to have obtained a right to the possessions of the Saxons;
and in a later age, the Irish princes, whose estates were not
confirmed by a direct grant from the English crown, were exposed to
forfeiture when legally summoned to prove their titles. The extensive
acquisitions made by the Romans, were either formed into extensive
national domains, or divided into small lots among the poorer classes.
The usufruct of the domains was monopolized by the patri