[70] [Rarely were laws passed by the tribal assembly under the presidency of a consul.]
[71] [After the passing of the Hortensian Law, 287 B.C., the tribunes were no longer constitutionally bound to gain the consent of the senate to their bills; and occasionally a tribune, as Flaminius in 232 and Claudius in 218, availed himself of his constitutional freedom. Generally, however, the tribunes were ministers of the senate, and more subservient than the consuls.]
[72] When the pound of weight ceased to be the same with the pound of currency, the former was usually designated æs grave.
[73] Munire viam, was their phrase.
CHAPTER XV. THE GRACCHI AND THEIR REFORMS
TIBERIUS GRACCHUS
It appears that before the time of Scipio’s election to conduct the Numantian War, it had become a prevalent opinion that some measures were necessary to arrest the prevailing social evils. The frightful excesses of the Servile War called attention still more strongly to the subject; and in the year that Scipio achieved the conquest of Numantia a leader appeared who was endowed with courage, firmness, self-confidence, ability, eloquence, and every requisite for political success, except a larger experience and a larger share of patience and self-control.[b] A. H. Beesley thus vividly paints the crying evils of the Roman state: