Notwithstanding the use of the word plebs to designate the tribal gathering under tribunician presidency, there is no valid reason for supposing that the Valerian-Horatian law altered its composition—that the patricians were now excluded.[1673] Dionysius[1674] is clearly of the opinion that they participated in this form of comitia both before and after the enactment of the statute under consideration; and Livy[1675] thinks of them as still present in the tribunician meetings as late as the struggle for the Licinian-Sextian laws. The problem must be considered in connection with the development of the voting function of the assembly. Primitively the leaders (nobles) in council decided upon a measure, which they then submitted to the people to be accepted with clamor and din.[1676] Although the acclamation was essentially an act of the masses, nothing forbade the nobles to join in the shouting. Doubtless in the tribal assemblies the expression of opinion within the tribe continued for a time to be by acclamation.[1677] As long as this primitive condition existed, a distinction could not be drawn between the right to be present and the right to join in the decision of questions brought before the comitia. Undoubtedly the custom of voting by heads within the tribe was an imitation of a usage adopted by the comitia centuriata some time after the institution of the latter;[1678] hence we could not reasonably assume its use by the tribes so early as the pre-decemviral period. The question therefore as to whether the patricians, who were certainly present in meetings of the tribes, enjoyed the right of voting in them could not have arisen till after the decemviral legislation. The plebeians had found it impossible by their own powers to exclude from their assembly the landless clients, who were inferior to themselves.[1679] Much less could they exclude the nobles. If the presiding tribune could not prevent their remaining after the people had been formed into voting groups, he could not prevent their voting. As the patricians, equally with the plebeians, belonged to the tribes, the former, being men of superior privilege, could not lawfully be debarred from meetings of their associations; and if they chose to attend, it was not for the tribunes of the plebs to decide as to the law in the matter. The word plebs in the statute is susceptible of an easy explanation. As the comitia curiata and comitia centuriata, under patrician presidents, had from the beginning been termed populus, nothing could be more natural than that from the time an assembly convened under plebeian presidency for plebeian objects, the latter should by way of distinction be termed plebs, even though the few patricians were included. Ordinarily the plebeians must have welcomed patricians to their assemblies, as the presence of magistrates and senators and their sons added dignity and weight to the proceedings. But when the patricians used