In the original
constitution of Rome the patrician element was dominant, showing
that the patriarchal organization of society still retained no
little force. The king was only the presiding officer of the
senate and the leader of the army in war. His civil functions
corresponded very nearly to those of a mayor of the city of New
York, where all the effective power is in the aldermen, common
council, and heads of departments. Except in name he was little
else than a pageant. The kings, no doubt, labored to develop and
extend the royal element of the constitution. This was natural;
and it was equally natural that they should be resisted by the
patricians. Hence when the Tarquins, or Etruscan dynasty,
undertook to be kings in fact as well as in name, and seemed
likely to succeed, the patricians expelled them, and supplied
their place by two consuls annually elected. Here was a
modification, but no real change of the constitution. The
effective Power, as before, remained in the senate.
But there was from early times a plebeian element in the
population of the city, though forming at first no part of the
political people. Their origin is not very certain, nor their
original position in the city. Historians give different
accounts of them. But that they should, as they increased in
numbers, wealth, and importance, demand admission into the
political society, religious or solemn marriage, a voice in the
government, and the faculty of holding civil and military offices,
was only in the order of regular development.
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