then, as they are now, always powerful in the strength of outraged
feeling or righteous indignation.

All was vain. The two armies returned to the Aventine united, and from
the other parts of the city the plebeians flocked to them. This was the
second secession, and, like the first, it was successful. The decemvirs
were compelled to resign, their places being filled by two consuls;
Appius was thrown into prison, to await judgment, and took his life
there; and ten tribunes of the people were chosen to look out for the
interests of the commons, Virginius and Icilius being two of the
number. Thus, for the first time since the days of Publius Valerius,
the control of government was in the hands of men who wished to carry
it on for the good of the country, rather than in the interest of a
party. Thus good came out of evil.

Among the laws of the Twelve Tables, the particular one which had at
this time excited the plebeians was a statute prohibiting marriages
between members of their order and the patricians. There had been such
marriages, and this made the opposition to the law all the more bitter,
though no one was powerful enough to cause it to be abolished. There
now arose a tribune of the people who possessed force and persistence,
Caius Canuleius by name, and he urged the repeal of this law. For the
third time the plebeians seceded, this time going over the Tiber to the
Janiculum Hill, where it would have been possible for them to begin a
new city, if they had not been propitiated. Canuleius argued with vigor
against the consuls who stood up for the law, and at last he succeeded.
In the year 445 the restriction was removed, and plebeian girls were at
liberty to become the wives of patrician men, with the assurance that
their children should enjoy the rank of their fathers. This right of
intermarriage led in time to the entrance of plebeians upon the highest