Ab urbe condita

So the number of the pontiffs was raised to eight and that of the augurs to nine. In[*](The Valerian Law.) this year the consul, M. Valerius, carried a proposal to strengthen the provisions of the law touching the right of appeal.

This was the third time since the expulsion of the kings that this law was re-enacted, and always by the same family. I think that the reason for renewing it so often was solely the fact that the excessive power exercised by a few men was dangerous to the liberties of the plebs.

The Porcian law, however, seems to have been passed solely for the protection of the citizens in life and limb, for it imposed the severest penalties on any one who killed or scourged a Roman citizen.

The Valerian law, it is true, forbade any one who had exercised his right of appeal to be scourged or beheaded, but if any one transgressed its provisions it added no penalty, but simply declared such transgression to be a “wicked act.”