From the Agrarian Law of Sp. Cassius to the appointment of the Decemvirs was a period of more than thirty years. During the whole of this time the struggle between the Patricians and the Plebeians was increasing. The latter constantly demanded, and the former as firmly refused, the execution of the Agrarian Law of Cassius. But, though the Plebeians failed in obtaining this object, they nevertheless made steady progress in gaining for themselves a more important position in the city. In B.C. 471 the Publilian Law was carried, by which the election of the Tribunes and Plebeian AEdiles was transferred from the Comitia of the Centuries to those of the Tribes.[17] From this time the Comitia of the Tribes may be regarded as one of the political assemblies of the state, ranking with those of the Centuries and the Curies. But the Patricians still retained exclusive possession of the administrative and judicial powers, and there were no written laws to limit their authority and to regulate their decisions. Under these circumstances, the Tribune C. Terentilius Arsa proposed, in B.C. 462, that a commission of Ten Men (Decemviri) should be appointed to draw up a code of laws, by which a check might be put to the arbitrary power of the Patrician magistrates. This proposition, as might have been expected, met with the most vehement opposition from the Patricians. But the Plebeians were firm, and for five successive years the same Tribunes were re-elected. It was during this struggle that an attempt was made upon the Capitol by Herdonius, a Sabine chief, with a band of outlaws and slaves. It was a turbulent period, and the Patricians had recourse even to assassination. At length, after a struggle of eight years, a compromise was effected, and it was arranged that Three Commissioners (Triumviri) were to be sent into Greece to collect information respecting the laws of Solon at Athens, as well as of the other Greek states. After an absence of two years the three commissioners returned to Rome (B.C. 452), and it was now resolved that a Council of Ten, or Decemvirs, should be appointed to draw up a code of laws, and, at the same time, to carry on the government and administer justice. All the other magistrates were obliged to abdicate, and no exception was made even in favor of the Tribunes. The Decemvirs were thus intrusted with supreme power in the state. They entered upon their office at the beginning of B.C. 451. They were all Patricians. At their head stood Appius Claudius and T. Genucius, who had been already appointed consuls for the year. They discharged the duties of their office with diligence, and dispensed justice with impartiality. Each administered the government day by day in succession, and the fasces were carried only before the one who presided for the day. They drew up a Code of Ten Tables, in which equal justice was dealt out to both orders. The Ten Tables received the sanction of the Comitia of the Centuries, and thus became law.