Marcellus, proconsul on the day of his ovation.[2033] The popular party had not long to wait for an opportunity to retaliate upon the senate for the slight it had offered their champion. On the precedent of the Ovinian law[2034] the people had a right to legislate concerning the honors, privileges, and qualifications of its individual members.[2035] In 219 accordingly the plebiscite of Q. Claudius, known to have been supported in the senate by C. Flaminius alone, who was then censor, prohibited senators and their sons from owning sea-going ships of more than three hundred amphoras capacity.[2036] It was probably an article of this statute which forbade the same class of persons to take contracts from the government, with the reservation of such economically insignificant agreements as concerned worship.[2037] The peasants, whose interests Flaminius represented, opposed the renewal of the war with Carthage, regarding it as a means of extending the field of commerce and speculation of the nobles. This law therefore expresses the determination of the country people that the senatorial families should no longer share the advantages of such wars. From the point of view of the statesman it was the first step toward the separation of the governing class from the commercial class, with a view to guarding against the administration of the government in the sole interest of capital. The result was not all that could be desired; the senatorial families found secret ways of placing a great part of their funds in commercial companies; and in so far as the law was actually effective, it compelled senators to invest money in Italian land[2038]—a proceeding which contributed largely to the economic ruin of the peninsula.