Latin confederacy, and acknowledged to be the metropolitan city. It
was deprived of this supremacy after the war with Porsen'na, but soon
recovered its former greatness.

15. The equestrian rank was an order in the Roman state from the very
beginning. It was at first confined to the nobility, and none but the
patricians had the privilege of serving on horseback. But in the later
ages, it became a political dignity, and persons were raised to the
equestrian rank by the amount of their possessions.

16. The next great change took place after the expulsion of the kings;
annual magistrates, called consuls, were elected in the comitia
centuriata, but none but patricians could hold this office. 17. The
liberties of the people were soon after extended and secured by
certain laws, traditionally attributed to Vale'rius Public'ola, of
which the most important was that which allowed[10] an appeal to a
general assembly of the people from the sentence of a magistrate. 18.
To deprive the plebeians of this privilege was the darling object of
the patricians, and it was for this purpose alone that they instituted
the dictatorship. From the sentence of this magistrate there was no
appeal to the tribes or centuries, but the patricians kept their own
privilege of being tried before the tribunal of the curiæ. 19. The
power of the state was now usurped by a factious oligarchy, whose
oppressions were more grievous than those of the worst tyrant; they at
last became so intolerable, that the commonalty had recourse to arms,
and fortified that part of the city which was exclusively inhabited by
the plebeians, while others formed a camp on the Sacred Mount at some
distance from Rome. A tumult of this kind was called a secession; it
threatened to terminate in a civil war, which would have been both
long and doubtful; for the patricians and their clients were probably