THE FIRST CONSULS.--With the monarchy overthrown and the last king and his house banished from Rome, the people set to work to reorganize the government. In place of the king, there were elected (by the _comitia centuriata_, in which assembly the plebeians had a place) two patrician magistrates, called consuls, [Footnote: That is, _colleagues_. Each consul had the power of obstructing the acts or vetoing the commands of the other. In times of great public danger the consuls were superseded by a special officer called a _dictator_, whose term of office was limited to six months, but whose power during this time was as unlimited as that of the kings had been.] who were chosen for one year, and were invested with all the powers, save some priestly functions, that had been held by the monarch during the regal period. In public each consul was attended by twelve servants, called lictors, each of whom bore an axe bound in a bundle of rods (_fasces_), the symbols of the authority of the consul to flog and to put to death. Within the limits of the city, however, the axe must be removed from the _fasces_, by which was indicated that no Roman citizen could be put to death by the consuls without the consent of the public assembly. Lucius Junius Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus were the first consuls under the new constitution. But it is said that the very name of Tarquinius was so intolerable to the people that he was forced to resign the consulship, and that he and all his house were driven out of Rome. [Footnote: The truth is, he was related to the exiled royal family, and the people were distrustful of his loyalty to the republic.] Another consul, Publius Valerius, was chosen in his stead. SECESSION OF THE PLEBEIANS. FIRST SECESSION OF THE PLEBEIANS (494 B.C.).--Taking advantage of the disorders that followed the political revolution, the Latin towns which had been forced to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome rose in revolt, and the result was that almost all the conquests that had been made under the kings were lost. For a long time the little republic had to struggle hard for bare existence. [Illustration: LICTORS.] Troubles without brought troubles within. The poor plebeians, during this period of disorder and war, fell in debt to the wealthy class,--for the Roman soldier went to war at his own charge, equipping and feeding himself,--and payment was exacted with heartless severity. A debtor became the absolute property of his creditor, who might sell him as a slave to pay the debt, and in some cases even put him to death. All this was intolerable. The plebeians determined to secede from Rome and build a new city for themselves on a neighboring eminence, called afterwards the Sacred Hill. They marched away in a body from Rome to the chosen spot, and began making preparations for erecting new homes (494 B.C.).