effect that the Tribunes should hereafter be chosen in the _Comitia
Tribúta_, instead of the _Comitia Centuriáta_. Thus the plebeians
gained a very important step. This bill is called the PUBLILIAN LAW
(_Plebiscítum Publilium_). [Footnote: All bills passed in the Comitia
Tribúta were called Plebiscíta, and until 286 were not necessarily
binding upon the people at large; but this bill seems to have been
recognized as a law.]

For the next twenty years the struggle continued unabated. The
plebeians demanded a WRITTEN CODE OF LAWS.

We find among all early peoples that the laws are at first the
unwritten ones of custom and precedent. The laws at Rome, thus far,
had been interpreted according to the wishes and traditions of the
patricians only. A change was demanded. This was obtained by the
TERENTILIAN ROGATION, a proposal made in 461 by Gaius Terentilius
Harsa, a Tribune, to the effect that the laws thereafter be written.
The patrician families, led by one Kaeso Quinctius, made bitter
opposition. Kaeso himself, son of the famous Cincinnátus, was
impeached by the Tribune and fled from the city.

Finally it was arranged that the Comitia Centuriáta should select from
the people at large ten men, called the DECEMVIRATE, to hold office
for one year, to direct the government and supersede all other
magistrates, and especially to draw up a code of laws to be submitted
to the people for approval. A commission of three patricians was sent
to Athens to examine the laws of that city, which was now (454) at the
height of its prosperity. Two years were spent by this commission, and
upon their return in 452 the above mentioned Decemvirate was
appointed.