5. The only direct consequence to the internal constitution of Rome, proceeding from the abolition of royalty was, that that power, undetermined as it had been while in the hands of the kings, was transferred to two consuls, annually elected. Meanwhile the struggle for liberty, in which the new republic was engaged with the Etrusci and Latins, contributed much to arouse the republican spirit which henceforward was the main feature of the Roman character--the evils of popular rule being in times of need remedied by the establishment of the dictatorship. The party, however, which had deposed the ruling family, took wholly into their own hands the helm of state; and the oppression of these aristocrats, shown principally towards their debtors, who had become their slaves, (_nexi_,)--notwithstanding the _lex de provocatione_ established by Valerius Poplicola, ensuring to the people the highest judicial power--was so galling, that after the lapse of a few years it gave rise to a sedition of the commons, (_plebis_,) the consequence of which was the establishment of annually elected presidents of the people (_tribuni plebis_). First commercial treaty with Carthage, 508, in which Rome appears certainly as a free state, but not yet as sovereign of all Latium; the most important monument of the authenticity of the earlier Roman history. HEYNE, _Foedera Carthaginiensium cum Romanis super navigatione et mercatura facta_: contained in his Opusc. t. iii. Cf. # A. H. L. HEEREN, _Ideas_, etc. Appendix to the second vol. 6. The further development of the Roman constitution in this period, hinges almost wholly on the struggle between the new presidents of the commons and the hereditary nobility; the tribunes, instead of confining themselves to defend the people from the oppression of the nobles, soon began to act as aggressors, and in a short time so widely overstepped their power, that there remained no chance of putting an end to the struggle but by a complete equalization of rights. A long time elapsed ere this took place; the aristocracy finding a very powerful support both in the clientship and in the religion of the state, operating under the shape of auspices.