[1587] Livy iii. 13. 6; 56. 5; viii. 33. 7; ix. 26. 16; xxxviii. 52. 8; Suet. Caes. 23. Naturally the plebeians were in most need of protection; cf. Ihne, in Rhein. Mus. xxi (1866). 169.
[1588] Livy ii. 33. 3: “Auxilii non poenae ius datum illi potestati”; cf. Ihne, ibid. 170.
[1589] Gell. iii. 2. 11; xiii. 12. 9; Macrob. Sat. i. 3. 8; Dion. Hal. viii. 87. 6; Serv. in Aen. v. 738; cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. ii. 291, n. 2.
[1590] Plut. Q. R. 81.
[1591] In this respect the plebeian body was analogous to a corporation; Gaius, in Dig. xlvii. 22. 4 (quoting a law of the Twelve Tables). But it was not a private association. It could neither limit its membership nor change its organization. Proof of these two facts is that the change of organization from curiate to tribal and the consequent exclusion of the landless resulted from a centuriate law; p. 271. Notwithstanding the fact that its resolutions lacked the force of law, the close relation existing between it and the state gave it from the beginning a prominent place in the constitution.
[1592] Livy ii. 56. 11-13 (The consul asserted that according to ancestral usage he himself had no right to remove any one from the place of assembly); cf. 35. 3: “Plebis non patrum tribunos esse.”
[1593] Livy ii. 35. 3: “Auxilii non poenae ius datum illi potestati”; 56. 11-13.
[1594] Cf. Livy ii. 35. 2; 52. 3 ff.; 54. 3 ff.; 61.
[1595] Cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. ii. 320, n. 2; Ihne, in Rhein. Mus. xxi (1866). 175 ff.; Herzog, Röm. Staatsverf. i. 157.
[1596] Hence they had no viatores; so that for a time after they assumed criminal jurisdiction the aediles acted as their bailiffs; p. 290.