Page "Conflict of the Orders" Paragraph 4

During the early years of the republic, the Plebeians were not allowed to hold magisterial office.

Neither Tribunes nor Aediles were technically magistrates, since they were both elected solely by the Plebeians, rather than by both the Plebeians and the Patricians.

In 445 BC, the Plebeians demanded the right to stand for election as consul ( the chief-magistrate of the Roman Republic ), but the Roman senate refused to grant them this right.

Ultimately, a compromise was reached, and while the Consulship remained closed to the Plebeians, Consular command authority ( imperium ) was granted to a select number of Military Tribunes.

These individuals, the so-called Consular Tribunes (" Military Tribunes with Consular powers " or tribuni militares consulari potestate ) were elected by the Century Assembly ( the assembly of soldiers ), and the senate had the power to veto any such election.

This was the first of many attempts by the Plebeians to achieve political equality with the Patricians.

Starting around the year 400 BC, a series of wars were fought against several neighboring tribes ( in particular the Aequi, the Volsci, the Latins, and the Veii ).

The disenfranchised Plebeians fought in the army, while the Patrician aristocracy enjoyed the fruits of the resulting conquests.

The Plebeians, by now exhausted and bitter, demanded real concessions, so the Tribunes C. Licinius Stolo and L. Sextius passed a law in 367 BC ( the " Licinio-Sextian law "), which dealt with the economic plight of the Plebeians.

However, the law also required the election of at least one Plebeian Consul each year.

The opening of the Consulship to the Plebeians was probably the cause behind the concession of 366 BC, in which the Praetorship and Curule Aedileship were both created, but opened only to Patricians.