APPIUS CLAUDIUS as Censor, in 312, deprived the landowners of the
exclusive privilege of voting in the _Comitia Tribúta_, and gave
to property owners of any sort the right to vote. Eight years later
this law was modified, so that it applied to the four city tribes
alone, and the thirty-one rural tribes had for their basis landed
property only.

During the censorship of Appius, Rome had its first regular water
supply by the Appian aqueduct. The first military road, the VIA APPIA,
was built under his supervision. This road ran at first from Rome as
far as Capua. It was constructed so well that many parts of it are
today in good condition. The road was afterward extended to
Brundisium, through Venusia and Tarentum.

MANIUS CURIUS DENTÁTUS was a peasant, a contemporary of Appius, and
his opponent in many ways. He was a strong friend of the plebeians. He
obtained for the soldiers large assignments of the _Ager
Publicus_. He drained the low and swampy country near Reáte by a
canal. He was the conqueror of Pyrrhus. A man of sterling qualities,
frugal and unostentatious, after his public life he retired to his
farm and spent the remainder of his days in seclusion as a simple
peasant.

GAIUS FABRICIUS, like Dentátus, was from the peasants. He was a
Hernican. As a soldier he was successful. As a statesman he was
incorruptible, and of great use to his country. Previous to the battle
of Asculum, Pyrrhus attempted to bribe him by large sums of money,
and, failing in this, thought to frighten him by hiding an elephant
behind a curtain; the curtain was suddenly removed, but Fabricius,