us and Publius Valerius, to start a rebellion.
The people were assembled by curiae, or wards, and voted that
Tarquinius Superbus should be stripped of the kingly power, and
that he and all his family should be banished from Rome.

This was accordingly done; and, instead of kings, consuls were
appointed to wield the supreme power. These consuls were elected
annually at the _comitia centuriata_ and they had sovereign power
granted them by a vote of the _comitia curiata_. The first consuls
chosen were Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus.

What is known as the Secession to the Sacred Hill took place when
the plebeians of Rome, in the early days of the Republic, indignant
at the oppression and cruelty of the patricians, left the city en
masse and gathered with hostile manifestations at a hill, Mons
Sacer, some distance from Rome. It was here Menenius Agrippa
conciliated them by reciting the famous fable of "The Belly and the
Members." After this the people were induced to come to terms with
the patricians and to return to the city.

The people had, however, gained a great advantage by their bold
defiance of the consular and patrician class, who had practically
been supreme in the state, had been oppressive money-lenders, and
had controlled the decisions of the law courts. It was not in vain
that the people now demanded that as the two consuls were
practically elected to further the interests of the upper class, so
they, the plebeians, should have the election of two tribunes to
protect them from wrong and oppression. These new officers were
duly appointed, and eventually their number was increased to ten.
Their power was almost absolute, but it never seems to have been
abused, and this fact is a proof of the native moderation of the
ancient Romans. There have been many constitutional struggles in
the history of modern times, but nothing like the plebeian
tribunate has ever appeared, and it is a question if the
institution could have existed for a month, in any country of
modern times, with the salutary influences which it exercised in
early Rome.

Tarquin had made himself king by the aid of the patricians, and chiefly
by means of the third or Lucerian tribe, to which his family belonged.
The burgesses of the Gentes were indignant at the cur