23. Study Questions Copy

A council of ten men, replacing the tribunes and the consul, chosen from the patricians.

In 451 they helped create the first Ten Tables of Laws, but they were unfinished.

The Second Decemvirate (450) was a tyranny by Appius Claudius Crassus and nine men picked by him. They oppressed the plebs. But they did create two new tables of laws, protecting the patricians (including a law banning marriages between the two orders).

The consuls Lucius Valerius Potitus and Marcus Horatius Barbatus.

Crassus abducted a plebeian girl, Virginia, which provoked a huge backlash (compare this with the fall of Tarquinius Superbus).

Power was handed back to the consuls and the tribunes were restored.

The laws restored the right to appeal and made it stronger. The tribunes were made inviolate and the aediles were restored.

Crassus was indicted by the tribunes but committed suicide to escape execution. The rest did the same or went into exile.