ch sought to prevent
any official from attaining too independent a position. In 242 B. C. a
second praetorship, the office of the _praetor peregrinus_ or alien
praetor was established. The duty of this officer was to preside over the
trial of disputes arising between Roman citizens and foreigners. Two
additional praetorships were added in 227, and two more in 197 B. C., to
provide provincial governors of praetorian rank. In 241 B. C. the last two
rural tribal districts were created, making thirty-five tribes in all.
Hereafter when new settlements of Roman colonists were undertaken, or new
peoples admitted to citizenship, they were assigned to one or other of the
old tribes, and membership therein became hereditary, irrespective of
change of residence.

*The reform of the centuries.* At some time subsequent to the creation of
these last two tribes, very probably in the censorship of Flaminius in 220
B. C., a change was made in the organization of the centuriate assembly.
The centuries were organized on the basis of the tribes, an equal number
of centuries of juniors and seniors of each class being assigned to each
tribe.(9) The reform was evidently democratic in its nature, as it
diminished the relative importance of the first class, deprived the
equestrian centuries of the right of casting the first votes--a right now
exercised by a century chosen by lot for each meeting--and placed in
control of the Assembly of the Centuries the same elements as controlled
the Assembly of the Tribes.

*The comitia an antiquated institution.* But by the second century B. C.
the Roman primary assemblies had become antiquated as a vehicle for the
expression of the wishes of the majority of the Roman citizens, because
with the spread of the Roman citizen body throughout Italy it was
impossible for more than a small percentage to attend the meetings of the
Comitia, and this situation became much worse with the settlement of
Romans in their foreign dependencies. It was the failure of the Romans to
devise some adequate substitute for this institution of a primitive
city-state, which was largely responsible for the people's loss of its
sovereign powers. As it was, the assemblies came to be dominated by the
urban proletariat, a class absolutely unfitted to represent the Roman
citizens as a whole.

*The allies of Rome in Italy.* The Latin and Italian allies, with the
exception of such as were punished for their defection in the war with
Hanni