To class _b_ belonged the citizens of most of the Municipia, who
possessed only private rights, the citizens of all the _Praefectúrae_,
and the citizens of all the Latin colonies.

ROADS.

Even at this early date, the necessity of easy communication with the
capital seems to have been well understood. Roads were pushed in every
direction,--broad, level ways, over which armies might be marched or
intelligence quickly carried. They were chains which bound her
possessions indissolubly together. Some of them remain today a
monument of Roman thoroughness, enterprise, and sagacity,--the wonder
and admiration of modern road-builders. By these means did Rome fasten
together the constantly increasing fabric of her empire, so that not
even the successes of Hannibal caused more than a momentary shaking of
fidelity, for which ample punishment was both speedy and certain.


NOTED MEN.

The three most noted men of the period embraced in the two preceding
chapters were Appius Claudius, the Censor and patrician; and Manius
Curius Dentátus and Gaius Fabricius, plebeians.

We have seen that all plebeians who were land-owners belonged to one
of the tribes, and could vote in the _Comitia Tribúta_; this,
however, shut out the plebeians of the city who owned no land, and
also the freedmen, who were generally educated and professional men,
such as doctors, teachers, etc.