e Roman
franchise was granted without the right of voting in the Comitia
(_civitas sine suffragio_), but in course of time this right also was
generally conceded.

II. NOMEN LATINUM, or the LATIN NAME.--This term was applied to the
colonies founded by Rome which did not enjoy the rights of Roman
citizenship, and which stood in the same position with regard to the
Roman state as had been formerly occupied by the cities of the Latin
League. The name originated at a period when colonies were actually sent
out in common by the Romans and Latins, but similar colonies continued
to be founded by the Romans alone long after the extinction of the Latin
League. In fact, the majority of the colonies planted by Rome were of
this kind, the Roman citizens who took part in them voluntarily
resigning their citizenship, in consideration of the grants of land
which they obtained. But the citizen of any Latin colony might emigrate
to Rome, and be enrolled in one of the Roman tribes, provided he had
held a magistracy in his native town. These Latin colonies--the _Nomen
Latinum_--were some of the most flourishing towns in Italy.

III. SOCII, or ALLIES, included the rest of Italy. Each of the towns
which had been conquered by Rome had formed a treaty (_foedus_) with
the latter, which determined their rights and duties. These treaties
were of various kinds, some securing nominal independence to the towns,
and others reducing them to absolute subjection.

The political changes in Rome itself, from the time of the Latin wars,
have been already in great part anticipated. Appius Claudius, afterward
named Caecus, or the Blind, introduced a dangerous innovation in the
constitution during the Second Samnite War. Slavery existed at Rome, as
among the other nations of antiquity; and as many slaves, from various
causes, acquired their liberty, there gradually sprung up at Rome a
large and indigent population of servile origin. These Freedmen were
Roman citizens, but they could only be enrolled in the four city-tribes,
so that, however numerous they might become, they could influence only
the votes of four tribes. Appius Claudius, in his Censorship (B.C.
312), when making out the lists of citizens, allowed the Freedmen to
enroll themselves in any tribe they pleased; but this dangerous
innovation was abolished by the Censors Q. Fabius Maximus and P. Decius
Mus (B.C. 304), who restored all the Freedmen to the four city-tribes.
The Censorship of Appius