4.  Whether this distinction between these “curule houses” and the other families embraced within the patriciate was ever of serious political importance, cannot with certainty be either affirmed or denied; and as little do we know whether at this epoch there really was any considerable number of patrician families that were not yet curule.

5.  II.  II.  The Valerio-Horatian Laws

6.  I. XII.  Foreign Worships

7.  II.  I. Senate,

8.  II.  I. Senate, ii.  III.  Opposition of the Patriciate

9.  II.  II.  Legislation of the Twelve Tables

10.  II.  III.  Equivalence Law and Plebiscitum

11.  The statements as to the poverty of the consulars of this period, which play so great a part in the moral anecdote-books of a later age, mainly rest on a misunderstanding on the one hand of the old frugal economy—­which might very well consist with considerable prosperity —­and on the other hand of the beautiful old custom of burying men who had deserved well of the state from the proceeds of penny collections —­which was far from being a pauper burial.  The method also of explaining surnames by etymological guess-work, which has imported so many absurdities into Roman history, has furnished its quota to this belief (-Serranus-).

12.  II.  II.  The Valerio-Horatian Laws

13.  II.  III.  Equivalence Law and Plebiscitum

14.  II.  I. Restrictions on the Delegation of Powers

15.  II.  III.  Increasing Powers of the Burgesses

16.  Any one who compares the consular Fasti before and after 412 will have no doubt as to the existence of the above-mentioned law respecting re-election to the consulate; for, while before that year a return to office, especially after three or four years, was a common occurrence, afterwards intervals of ten years and more were as frequent.  Exceptions, however, occur in very great numbers, particularly during the severe years of war 434-443.  On the other hand, the principle of not allowing a plurality of offices was strictly adhered to.  There is no certain instance of the combination of two of the three ordinary curule (Liv. xxxix. 39, 4) offices (the consulate, praetorship, and curule aedileship), but instances occur of other combinations, such as of the curule aedileship and the office of master of the horse (Liv. xxiii. 24, 30); of the praetorship and censorship (Fast.  Cap. a. 501); of the praetorship and the dictatorship (Liv. viii. 12); of the consulate and the dictatorship (Liv. viii. 12).

17.  II.  I. Senate

18.  Hence despatches intended for the senate were addressed to Consuls, Praetors, Tribunes of the Plebs, and Senate (Cicero, ad Fam. xv. 2, et al.)

19.  I. V. The Senate

20.  II.  I. Senate

21.  II.  III.  Censorship