persuaded to give up their enterprise and come back to Rome. The consul
Valerius was sent to treat with the insurgents. The plebeians were at
first obstinate, but at last were persuaded to yield to the entreaties of
the embassy to return, being won to this mind, so it is said, by one of
the wise senators, Menenius, who made use of the well-known fable of the
Body and the Members.

The following covenant was entered into, and bound by the most solemn
oaths and vows before the gods: The debts of the poor plebeians were to be
cancelled and those held in slavery set free; and two magistrates (the
number was soon increased to ten), called tribunes, whose duty it should
be to watch over the plebeians, and protect them against the injustice,
harshness, and partiality of the patrician magistrates, were to be chosen
from the commons. The persons of these officers were made sacred. Any one
interrupting a tribune in the discharge of his duties, or doing him any
violence, was declared an outlaw, whom any one might kill. That the
tribunes might be always easily found, they were not allowed to go more
than one mile beyond the city walls. Their houses were to be open night as
well as day, that any plebeian unjustly dealt with might flee thither for
protection and refuge.

We cannot overestimate the importance of the change effected in the Roman
constitution by the creation of this office of the tribunate. Under the
protection and leadership of the tribunes, who were themselves protected
by oaths of inviolable sanctity, the plebeians carried on a struggle for a
share in the offices and dignities of the state which never ceased until
the Roman government, as yet only republican in name, became in fact a
real democracy, in which patrician and plebeian shared equally in all
emoluments and privileges.