Name Lex Voleronis | ||
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The Lex Publilia Voleronis was a law passed in 471 BC that established the election of tribunes by the Tribal Assembly instead of the Centuriate Assembly, making plebeians politically independent of the patricians.
Establishment
According to the historian Livy, following conflicts with the Veientines and the Sabines (as part of the Roman-Etruscan Wars), the Roman consulate was taken up by Gnaeus Manlius Vulso with Lucius Furius Medullinus Fusus. The tribune Gnaeus Genucius accused the consuls of not enforcing agrarian law when it was employed by the tribunes and impeached them at the end of their consulship. In the year following, Livy says Furius and Manlius were to be tried in front of the people. In order to secure their safety, they convinced the young members of the Roman Senate that the high offices were going to be crushed by tribunal power; consequently the Senate's decision to save Furius and Manlius led to the assassination of Gnaeus Genucius.
Livy says that the tribunes were so intimidated by Genucius's assassination that they fell into political silence, allowing the consuls to exercise their power without interruption. The plebeians became enraged by this and began to voice their concerns; Volero Publilius being among them claimed he should not be made a common soldier after serving as a centurion. Violence escalated when the Senate sent a lictor to punish Volero, who fought off the lictor and won the favor of the Plebs. He was elected tribune the next year and proposed that the magistrates of the plebs would be elected by the Tribal Assembly, which would deprive the Patricians of the ability to elect tribunes through the votes of their clients.