In 449 Valerius and Horatius were elected Consuls, and were instrumental in passing the so called VALERIO-HORATIAN laws, the substance of which was as follows:—
I. Every Roman citizen could appeal to the Comitia Centuriáta against the sentence of any magistrate.
II. All the decisions of the Comitia Tribúta (plebiscita), if sanctioned by the Senate and Comitia Centuriáta, were made binding upon patricians and plebeians alike. This assembly now became of equal importance with the other two.
III. The persons of the Tribunes, Aediles, and other plebeian officers, were to be considered sacred.
IV. The Tribunes could take part in the debates of the Senate, and veto any of its decisions.
Two years later (447), the election of the Quaestors, who must still be patricians, was intrusted to the Comitia Tribúta. Heretofore they had been appointed by the Consuls.
In 445 the Tribune Canuleius proposed a bill which was passed, and called the CANULEIAN LAW, giving to the plebeians the right of intermarriage (connubium) with the patricians, and enacting that all issue of such marriages should have the rank of the father.
Canuleius also proposed another bill which he did not carry; viz. that the consulship be open to the plebeians. A compromise, however, was made, and it was agreed to suspend for a time the office of Consul, and to elect annually six MILITARY TRIBUNES in the Comitia Centuriáta, the office being open to all citizens. The people voted every year whether they should have consuls or military tribunes, and this custom continued for nearly a half-century. The patricians, however, were so influential, that for a long time no plebeian was elected.
As an offset to these gains of the plebeians, the patricians in 435 obtained two new officers, called CENSORS, elected from their own ranks every five years (lustrum) to hold office for eighteen months.
The duties of the Censors were:—