the exception of the
quaestorship, had a separate sphere of action. But among these committees
there was a regularly established order of rank, running, from lowest to
highest, as follows: quaestors, aediles, censors, praetors, consuls. With
the exception of the censorship that was regularly filled by ex-consuls,
the magistracies were usually held in the above order. Magistrates of
higher rank enjoyed greater authority than all those who ranked below
them, and as a rule could forbid or annul the actions of the latter. A
magistrate could also veto the action of his colleague in office. In this
way the consuls were able to control the activities of all other regular
magistrates. However, the extraordinary office of the dictatorship
outranked the consulship and consequently the dictator could suspend the
action of the consuls themselves. The unity that was thus given to the
administration by this conception of _maior potestas_ was increased by the
presence of the Senate, a council whose influence over the magistracy grew
in proportion as the consulate lost in power and independence through the
creation of new offices.

III. THE PLEBEIAN STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL EQUALITY

*The causes of the struggle.* Of greater moment in the early history of
the republic than the development of the magistracy was the persistent
effort made by the plebeians to secure for themselves admission to all the
offices and privileges that at the beginning of the republic were
monopolized by the patricians. Their demands were vigorously opposed by
the latter, whose position was sustained by tradition, by their control of
the organs of government, by individual and class prestige, and by the
support of their numerous clients. But among the plebeians there was an
ever increasing number whose fortunes ranked with those of the patricians
and who refused to be excluded from the government. These furnished the
leaders among the plebs. However, a factor of greater importance than the
presence of this element in determining the final outcome of the struggle
was the demand made upon the military resources of the state by the
numerous foreign wars. The plebeian soldiers shared equally with the
patricians in the dangers of the field, and equality of political rights
could not long be withheld from them. As their services were essential to
the state, the patrician senators were farsighted enough to make
concessions to their demands whenever a ref