an exaggeration, as the context proves that the women referred to did not actually come into the assembly, and the speaker intimates that custom disapproved of their doing so. From the time of the Gracchi they occasionally spoke in public. Dio Cassius[829] states that Tiberius Gracchus brought his mother and children into a contio to join their entreaties with his; and according to Valerius Maximus[830] a tribune of the plebs required Sempronia, sister of the Gracchi, to come forward in a similar meeting and give her opinion on the subject under consideration. In the year 43 some ladies attended a contio to protest against being taxed by the triumvirs. Hortensia spoke for the complainants.[831] It was an accepted custom that no tribune should intercede against a measure till an opportunity had been afforded private persons to speak for or against it.[832] When after the victory of Pydna a tribune of the plebs had introduced a motion to grant a triumph to Aemilius Paulus, and the debate had been thrown open to the assembly, all for a time remained silent, for no doubt was entertained as to its passing; but finally Servius Galba, who as a military tribune had served under Paulus and was his enemy, came forward and obstructed the measure by a long harangue.[833] Although the president could, and perhaps often did, throw the debate open to the citizens in this way, he was not compelled to do so. The tribunician assembly was more deliberative than any other—a circumstance which accounts for its designation as a concilium.[834] Those invited to speak, if citizens, had to be of good standing and not under disqualification through a special law or usage. The rex sacrorum was prohibited not only from holding any other office but also from addressing an assembly.[835] The spendthrift[836] and the man condemned for extortion[837] were likewise forbidden. When the right was granted as a special distinction, the receiver was probably placed thereby on a footing of equal dignity with the magistrates.[838] The president could also compel a citizen to speak. The holder of the imperium had a right to summon any man into a public meeting, and order him to answer any question put to him.[839] Tribunes of the plebs, however, who lacked the power of summoning, exercised this coercive function against citizens and even consuls, not through a direct right but by a usurpation, probably based on their power to arrest and imprison.[840]