Ab urbe condita

Next day the tribunes took their places on the “ templum,” [*](templum —See note 6, Book I. Measures could only be submitted to the people from a place which the augurs had solemnly set apart for the purpose.) the consuls and the nobility stood about in the Assembly to prevent the passage of the

Law. Laetorius gave orders for all, except actual voters, to withdraw. The young patricians kept their places and paid no attention to the tribune's officer, whereupon Laetorius ordered some of them to be

arrested. Appius insisted that the tribunes had no jurisdiction over any but plebeians, they were not magistrates of the whole people, but only of the plebs; even he himself could not, according to the usage of their ancestors, remove any man by virtue of his authority, for the formula ran, “If it seems good to you, Quirites,

depart!” By making contemptuous remarks about his jurisdiction, he was easily able to disconcert Laetorius. The tribune, in a burning rage, sent his officer to the consul, the consul sent a lictor to the tribune, exclaiming that he was a private citizen without any magisterial

authority. The tribune would have been treated with indignity had not the whole Assembly risen angrily to defend the tribune against the consul, whilst people rushed from all parts of the City in excited crowds to the