OF THE HOMAN EMPIRE.

II

of Zaleucus , which so long maintained the in- chap.tegnty of his republic. A Locrian who pro-posed any new law, stood forth in the assemblyof the people with a cord round his neck; andif the law was rejected, the innovator was in-stantly strangled.

The decemvirs had been named, and their Laws oftables were approved, by an assembly of the the P e °i ,le -centuries, in which riches preponderated againstnumbers. To the first class of Romans, theproprietors of one hundred thousand pounds ofcopper , 11 ninety-eight votes were assigned, andonly ninety-five were left for the six inferiorclasses, distributed according to their sub-stance by the artful policy of Servius. Butthe tribune*; soon established a more speciousand popular maxim, that every citizen has anequal right to enact the laws which he is boundto obey. Instead of the centuries, they conven-ed the tribes; and the patricians, after an im-potent struggle, submitted to the decrees of an

d Dionysius, with Arbutlinot, and most of the moderns (exceptEiscnschmidt de Ponderibus, &cc. p. 137-140), represent the 100,000asses by 10,000 Attic drachms, or somewhat more than 300 pouadssterling. But their calculation can apply only to the latter times,when the as was diminished to -j^-th of its ancient weight: nor can Ibelieve that in the first ages, however destitute of the precious metals,a single ounce of silver could have been exchanged for seventy poundsof copper or brass. A more simple and rational method is, to valuethe copper itself according to the present rate, and, after comparingthe mint and the market price, the Roman and avoirdupois weight,the primitive as or Roman pound of copper may be appreciated at oneEnglish shilling, and the 100,000 asses of the first class amounted to6000 pounds sterling. It will appear from the same reckoning, thatan ox was sold at Rome for five pounds, a sheep for ten shillings, anda quarter of wheat for one pound ten shillings, (Festus, p. 330, edit.

Dacier; Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii, 4): nor do I sec any reason to rejectthese consequences, which moderate our ideas of the poverty of thefirst Romans.