The legislature established at Rome by the authority of Servius Tullius was the _comitia centuriata_, which, after the expulsion of the kings, rendered the government for some time altogether aristocratical. But the people, having numbers and force on their side, and being elated with frequent conquests and victories in their foreign wars, always prevailed when pushed to extremities, and first extorted from the senate the magistracy of the tribunes, and then the legislative power of the _comitia tributa_. It then behoved the nobles to be more careful than ever not to provoke the people, for beside the force which the latter were always possessed of, they had now got possession of legal authority, and could instantly break in pieces any order or institution which directly opposed them. By intrigue, by influence, by money, by combination, and by the respect paid their character, the nobles might often prevail and direct the whole machine of government; but had they openly set their _comitia centuriata_ in opposition to the _tributa_, they had soon lost the advantage of that institution, together with their consuls, prætors, ediles, and all the magistrates elected by it. But the _comitia tributa_, not having the same reason for respecting the _centuriata_, frequently repealed laws favourable to the aristocracy; they limited the authority of the nobles, protected the people from oppression, and controlled the actions of the senate and magistracy. The _centuriata_ found it convenient always to submit; and though equal in authority, yet being inferior in power, durst never directly give any shock to the other legislature, either by repealing its laws or establishing laws, which, it foresaw, would soon be repealed by it. No instance is found of any opposition or struggle between these _comitia_, except one slight attempt of this kind mentioned by Appian in the third book of his Civil Wars. Mark Antony, resolving to deprive Decimus Brutus of the government of Cisalpine Gaul, railed in the forum, and called one of the _comitia_ in order to prevent the meeting of the other which had been ordered by the senate; but affairs were then fallen into such confusion, and the Roman constitution was so near its final dissolution, that no inference can be drawn from such an expedient. This contest, besides, was founded more on form than party. It was the senate who ordered the _comitia tributa_ that they might obstruct the meeting of the _centuriata_, which, by the constitution, or at least forms of the government, could alone dispose of provinces. Cicero was recalled by the _comitia centuriata_, though banished by the _tributa_—that is, by a _plebiscitum_. But his banishment, we may observe, never was considered as a legal deed, arising from the free choice and inclination of the people. It was always ascribed to the violence alone of Clodius, and to the disorders introduced by him into the government.