n 351, and the praetorship in 337. Eventually, the curule
aedileship also was opened to them, and was held by patricians and
plebeians in alternate years.

*The plebs and the Senate.* Since the custom was early established that
ex-consuls, and later ex-praetors, should be enrolled in the Senate, with
the opening of these offices to the plebs the latter began to have an
ever-increasing representation in that body. As distinguished from the
_patres_ or patrician senators, the plebeians were called _conscripti_,
"the enrolled," and this distinction was preserved in the official formula
_patres conscripti_ used in addressing the Senate. In this fusion of the
leading plebeians with the patricians in the Senate we have the origin of
a new aristocracy in the Roman state: the so-called senatorial aristocracy
or _nobilitas_. This consisted of a large group of influential patrician
and plebeian families which, for some time at least, was continuously
quickened and revivified by the accession of prominent plebeians who
entered the Senate by way of the magistracies. Thus the Senate, by opening
its ranks to the leaders of the plebs, contrived to emerge from the
struggle with its prestige and influence increased rather than impaired.

*Appius Claudius, censor, 310 B. C.* An episode which illustrates the
growing democratic tendencies of the time is the censorship of Appius
Claudius, in 310, whose office is memorable for the construction of the
Via Appia and the Aqua Appia, Rome's first aqueduct. In his revision of
the Senate, Appius ventured to include among the senators persons who were
the sons of freedmen, and he permitted the landless population of the city
to enroll themselves in whatever tribal district they pleased. This latter
step was taken to increase the power of the city plebs, who had previously
been confined to the four city tribes, but who might now spread their
votes over the rural districts, of which there were now twenty-seven.
However, the work of Appius was soon undone. The consuls refused to
recognize the senatorial list prepared by him and his colleague, and the
following censors again restricted the city plebs to the urban tribes.

*The plebs and the priesthood.* The last stronghold of patrician privilege
was the priesthood which was opened to the plebeians by the Ogulnian Law
of 300 B. C. The number of pontiffs and augurs was increased and the new
positions were filled by plebeians. The patricians could no long