“Marcus Genucius and Gaius Curiatius were the next consuls. The year was fraught with difficulties both at home and abroad, for at its start the tribune of the plebs Gaius Canuleius introduced a bill allowing intermarriage between patricians and plebeians. This the senators believed would adulterate bloodlines and subvert the privileges the clans enjoyed. Furthermore, the tribune had begun to brute the idea that one of the consuls might be a plebeian.”
Endemic clannism influences politics. Although marriage is a social dynamic, it impacts politics. The arguments concerning the possibility of adulteration are comparable to the contemporary racism which impacts the voters’ resolution to vote. Some leaders enjoy upper hands as a result of their races whereas others are imperiled when they are perceived to be inferior.
“The peoples of Etruria, who disliked monarchy as much as they did the King personally. He had previously made himself hateful to the Etruscans because of his wealth and arrogance when he peremptorily broke up the solemn religious festival that it was sacrilegious to interrupt: angry that another man had been preferred to himself as priests by a vote of the twelve peoples, he abruptly withdrew his performers ( Most were his slaves) when the celebration was midway through. Thus the Etruscans, who are more completely devoted to religion than any other people and pride themselves on their skill in divine worship, decreed that aid be denied Veii as long as it was under a monarch.”
Livy portrays the convergence between dominant religion and government. The king’s actions demonstrate that he desired to be crowned as priest so he would relish both religious and political power. King wants to be regarded as a mystical individual whose worth is superior to those of his subjects. A resolution not to aid Veii is accredited to political and religious dynamics that are innately conjoined.
“What is more, they (Plebs) were subject to far harsher harassment and oppression than the people of Veii.The latter was spending the winter under their own roofs, in a city protected by stout walls and natural defensible site, while the Roman soldier, toiling and struggling, covered with snow and frost was holding out under the canvas, not allowed to lay aside his rams even in wintertime when all conflicts by land and sea are in abeyance. The kings had not imposed this degree of slavery upon the Roman plebs; neither had the arrogance of the consuls, even before the creation of the tribunician power; nor had the absolute power of the dictator or the oppression of the decemvirs.”
The tribunes’ intention is to elicit unrest in Rome. Their assertions which appeal to the masses’ Pathos undermine the stratagems employed by the “military tribunes.” A comparative analysis of the plebs and the Veii is projected to highlight the “military tribune’s” despotism which is detrimental to the Roman militaries. Tribunes intend to subvert the mechanisms of the military by mentioning the slavery-like treatments which the subject the Romans.
