The plebeians, for centuries, the underdogs, have won a major victory in their fight for a bigger say in the government of Rome . Despite powerful opposition from the wealthy patrician class, a new law has been passed that allows a pleb to be elected to one of the two consuls (senior magistrates), this ending years of class struggle in the city.

The heroes of the struggle have sought to erode the power and influence of the patricians by the shrewd use of the law of veto that allows an assembly of plebs to vote down measures such as the election of military tribunes.

The patricians' desperate answer was to appoint a dictator, Camillus, who confronted the two tribunes at an assembly of plebs. As well as meeting the demand for a plebeian consul, the new acts allow for changes in the harsh debt laws that have enslaved many plebs, and also for land reform. [Back to History]