still strong enough in the Senate as a whole to secure the passing of
legislation designed to check this evil. The Villian law (_lex Villia
annalis_) of 180 B. C. established a regular sequence for the holding of
the magistracies. Henceforth the quaestorship had to be held before the
praetorship, and the latter before the consulate. The aedileship was not
made imperative, but was regularly sought after the quaestorship, because
it involved the supervision of the public games and festivals, and in this
way gave a good opportunity for ingratiating oneself with the populace.
The tribunate was not considered as one of the regular magistracies, and
the censorship, according to the custom previously established, followed
the consulship. The minimum age of twenty-eight years was set for the
holding of the quaestorship, and an interval of two years was required
between successive magistracies. Somewhat later, about 151 B. C.,
re-elections to the same office were forbidden. In the years 181 and 159
B. C. laws were passed which established severe penalties for the bribery
of electors. Another attempt to check the same abuse was the introduction
of the secret ballot for voting in the assemblies. The Gabinian Law of 139
provided for the use of the ballot in elections; two years later the
Cassian Law extended its use to trials in the _comitia_, and in 131 it was
finally employed in the legislative assemblies.

But these laws accomplished no great results, as they dealt merely with
the symptoms, and not with the cause of the disorder. And the Roman
Senate, deteriorating in capacity and morale, was facing administrative,
military, and social problems, which might well have been beyond its power
to solve even in the days of its greatness. As we have indicated the
Senate's power rested largely upon its successful foreign policy, but its
initial failures in the last wars with Macedonia and Carthage, and the
long and bloody struggles in Spain, had weakened its reputation and its
claim to control the public policy was challenged, from the middle of the
second century B. C., by the new commercial and capitalist class.

*The Roman Constitution from 265 to 133 B. C.* During the period in
question there were few changes of importance in the political
organization of the Roman state. The dictatorship had been discarded,
although not abolished, before the close of the Hannibalic War, a step
which was in harmony with the policy of the Senate whi