A PECULIAR EPISODE FROM THE ‘STRUGGLE OF THE ORDERS’? LIVY AND THE LICINIO-SEXTIAN ROGATIONS

Abstract

The struggle for and passage of the so-called Licinio-Sextian rogations of 367b.c.is generally regarded as the climactic moment of the ‘struggle of the orders’. According to Livy, this year saw the ratification of a package of three laws. One limited possession of land. Another required that all money having been paid toward the interest on a debt be counted against the principal, and that the remainder of the debt be paid off in three annual instalments. The third law, which has received far the most attention in the sources and in modern scholarship, ended the practice of the annual election oftribuni militum consulari potestate, restoring the two-man consulship and requiring that one of the two consuls each year come from theplebs.The centrality of the struggle over these laws in Livy's account of the fourth century and their obvious effect, as reflected in thefastiby the subsequent election of two consuls every year, have led scholars to accept as genuine the tradition that an important reform of the Roman constitution took place in this year. However, every element of the laws, and of the narrative of how those laws came to be, has come under the scrutiny of modern scholarship. The most thoroughgoing of these criticisms is that offered by von Fritz, who argued that Livy and his sources completely misunderstood the tradition that they were interpreting.