The distinction between rich and poor, which arose out of these relations, by no means coincided with that between the clans and the plebeians.  If far the greater part of the patricians were wealthy landholders, opulent and considerable families were, of course, not wanting among the plebeians; and as the senate, which even then perhaps consisted in greater part of plebeians, had assumed the superintendence of the finances to the exclusion even of the patrician magistrates, it was natural that all those economic advantages, for which the political privileges of the nobility were abused, should go to the benefit of the wealthy collectively; and the pressure fell the more heavily upon the commons, since those who were the ablest and the most capable of resistance were by their admission to the senate transferred from the class of the oppressed to the ranks of the oppressors.

But this state of things prevented the political position of the aristocracy from being permanently tenable.  Had it possessed the self-control to govern justly and to protect the middle class—­as individual consuls from its ranks endeavoured, but from the reduced position of the magistracy were unable effectually, to do—­it might have long maintained itself in sole possession of the offices of state.  Had it been willing to admit the wealthy and respectable plebeians to full equality of rights—­possibly by connecting the acquisition of the patriciate with admission into the senate—­both might long have governed and speculated with impunity.  But neither of these courses was adopted; the narrowness of mind and short-sightedness, which are the proper and inalienable privileges of all genuine patricianism, were true to their character also in Rome, and rent the powerful commonwealth asunder in useless, aimless, and inglorious strife.

Secession to the Sacred Mount

The immediate crisis however proceeded not from those who felt the disabilities of their order, but from the distress of the farmers.  The rectified annals place the political revolution in the year 244, the social in the years 259 and 260; they certainly appear to have followed close upon each other, but the interval was probably longer.  The strict enforcement of the law of debt—­so runs the story—­excited the indignation of the farmers at large.  When in the year 259 the levy was called forth for a dangerous war, the men bound to serve refused to obey the command.  Thereupon the consul Publius Servilius suspended for a time the application of the debtor-laws, and gave orders to liberate the persons already imprisoned for debt as well as prohibited further arrests; so that the farmers took their places in the ranks and helped to secure the victory.  On their return from the field of battle the peace, which had been achieved by their exertions, brought back their prison and their chains:  with merciless rigour the second consul, Appius Claudius, enforced the debtor-laws and