debtor class at Rome.

The patrician Manlius, the hero of the brave defence of the Capitol, now
came forward as the champion of the plebeians. He sold the larger part of
his estates, and devoted the proceeds to the relief of the debtor class.
It seems evident that in thus undertaking the cause of the commons he had
personal aims and ambitions. The patricians determined to crush him. He
was finally brought to trial before the popular assembly, on the charge of
conspiring to restore the office of king. From the Forum, where the people
were gathered, the Capitol, which Manlius had so bravely defended against
the barbarians, was in full sight. Pointing to the temples he had saved,
he appealed to the gods and to the gratitude of the Roman people. The
people responded to the appeal in a way altogether natural. They refused
to condemn him. But brought to trial a second time, and now in a grove
whence the citadel could not be seen, he was sentenced to death, and was
thrown from the Tarpeian Rock. [Footnote: The Tarpeian Rock was the name
given to the cliff which the Capitoline Hill formed on the side towards
the Tiber (or towards the Palatine, according to some). It received its
name from Tarpeia, daughter of one of the legendary keepers of the
citadel. State criminals were frequently executed by being thrown from
this rock.] This event occurred 384 B.C.

PLEBEIANS ADMITTED TO THE CONSULSHIP.--For nearly half a century after the
death of Manlius the most important events in the history of Rome centre
about the struggle of the plebeians, for admission to those offices of the
government whence the jealousy of the patricians still excluded them. The
Licinian laws, so called from one of their proposers, the tribune C.
Licinius, besides relieving the poor of usurious interest, and effecting a
more just division of the public lands, also provided that consuls should
be chosen yearly, as at first (see p. 238), and that one of the consuls