POLITICAL EQUALITY.--The laws of the twelve tables lay at the basis of all subsequent legislation in Rome, and were always held in reverence. The plebeians soon gained further advantages. In 449 B.C., it was ordained, under the consuls _Horatius_ and _Valerius_, that the plebeian assembly of tribes should be a sovereign assembly, whose enactments should be binding on the whole Roman people. In 445 B.C., the law of _Canuleius_ legalized marriage between the plebeians and patricians. This was an important step towards the closer union of the two classes. The executive power was still in the hands of the patricians. But in 444 a new office, that of _military tribunes_ with consular power, to be chosen from the plebeians, was established. By way of offset to this great concession, a new patrician office, that of _Censor_, was created. The function of the two censors, who were to be chosen by the _Comitia Centuriata_, was to take the census at short intervals, to make out the tax-lists, to appoint senators and knights, to manage the collection of taxes, to superintend public buildings, and, finally, to exercise an indefinite supervision over public manners and morals. These were very great powers. We find that considerable time elapsed before the plebeians actually realized the advantage which they had legally won in this compromise. About the year 400, they succeeded in electing several military tribunes. As early as 410 B.C. three out of the four treasurers, or paymasters (_quæstors_), were plebeians. About forty years after (367 B.C.), they obtained, by the _Licinian Laws_, the political equality for which they had so long contended. WAR WITH THE ETRUSCANS.--But before this result should be reached, other events of much consequence were to occur. The _Etruscans_, who were not only proficients in the arts, but were also active in trade and commerce, had been defeated at sea by the Greeks, in 474 B.C. But on the north they had a more formidable foe in the _Gauls_, by whom their power was weakened. The Romans took advantage of the situation to lay siege to _Veii_, which, after ten years, was captured by their general, _Marcus Furius Camillus_. The capture of other towns followed. It was told of _Camillus_ that _Falerii_ surrendered to him of its own accord, for his magnanimity in sending back a treacherous schoolmaster who had taken out to his camp the sons of the chief citizens. Camillas tied his hands behind him, and ordered the boys to flog him back into the city. Camillus was sent into exile, it was related, on a charge of injustice in dividing the booty obtained at Veii.