death, provided that he had committed an act which was contrary to the general feeling of honour. Until then the patricians had indeed claimed for themselves the privilege of not being liable to be imprisoned at all; for we are told that Appius Claudius had called the _Carcer_ the _domicilium plebis_. Virginius showed himself generous, and granted to Appius a respite that he might deprive himself of life. Yet Sp. Oppius was executed, because his crime was of another kind, and not merely against an individual who might act with mildness. For that he had ordered an old soldier, who had served twenty-seven years, to be scourged; and that the man had come forward as his prosecutor, is evidently a fiction. Twenty-eight years was the time of effective service for a soldier; and here an old soldier is now brought in, who was in the last year of his military obligation, evidently as a general representation of tyranny. The other decemvirs went into voluntary exile, and their goods were confiscated. One of them was Q. Fabius, the ancestor of what was afterwards the _Gens Fabia_. The tribune Duilius now proclaimed an amnesty for all those who had committed any offence in this unfortunate time. This incident is of great importance for the history of the Roman method of procedure. I have already, on a former occasion, explicitly stated my opinion about it; but since the discovery of Gaius, the case has become much clearer. LEX HORATIA VALERIA. FURTHER CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION. MILITARY TRIBUNATE. CENSORSHIP. SP. MÆLIUS. VICTORY OF A. POSTUMIUS TUBERTUS OVER THE VOLSCIANS AND ÆQUIANS. CONQUEST OF FIDENÆ AND VEII.