[11,45] Οἱ δὲ μετὰ τὴν κατάλυσιν τῆς δεκαδαρχίας τὴν ὕπατον ἀρχὴν πρῶτοι παρὰ τοῦ δήμου λαβόντες ἐπὶ τῆς λοχίτιδος ἐκκλησίας, ὥσπερ ἔφην, Λεύκιος Οὐαλέριος Ποτῖτος καὶ Μάρκος Ὁράτιος Βαρβᾶτος, αὐτοί τε δημοτικοὶ τὰς φύσεις ὄντες καὶ παρὰ τῶν προγόνων ταύτην διαδεδεγμένοι τὴν πολιτείαν, τὰς ὑποσχέσεις φυλάττοντες, ἃς ἐποιήσαντο πρὸς τοὺς δημοτικούς, ὅτ´ ἀποθέσθαι τὰ ὅπλα συνέπειθον αὐτούς, ὡς πάντα τὰ συμφέροντα τῷ δήμῳ πολιτευσόμενοι, νόμους ἐκύρωσαν ἐν ἐκκλησίαις λοχίτισι, δυσχεραινόντων μὲν τῶν πατρικίων, αἰδουμένων δ´ ἀντιλέγειν, ἄλλους τέ τινας, οὓς οὐ δέομαι γράφειν, καὶ τὸν κελεύοντα τοὺς ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου τεθέντας ἐν ταῖς φυλετικαῖς ἐκκλησίαις νόμους ἅπασι κεῖσθαι Ῥωμαίοις ἐξ ἴσου, τὴν αὐτὴν ἔχοντας δύναμιν τοῖς ἐν ταῖς λοχίτισιν ἐκκλησίαις τεθησομένοις. τιμωρίαι δὲ προσέκειντο τοῖς καταλύουσιν ἢ παραβαίνουσι τὸν νόμον, ἐὰν ἁλῶσι, θάνατος καὶ δήμευσις τῆς οὐσίας. οὗτος ὁ νόμος ἐξέβαλε τὰς ἀμφισβητήσεις τῶν πατρικίων, ἃς ἐποιοῦντο πρὸς τοὺς δημοτικοὺς πρότερον, οὐκ ἀξιοῦντες τοῖς ὑπ´ ἐκείνων τεθεῖσι νόμοις πειθαρχεῖν, οὐδ´ ὅλως τὰ ἐν ταῖς φυλετικαῖς ἐκκλησίαις ἐπικυρούμενα κοινὰ τῆς πόλεως ἁπάσης δόγματα νομίζοντες, ἀλλ´ αὐτὸ μόνοις ἐκείνοις ἴδιον· ὅ τι δ´ ἂν ἡ λοχῖτις ἐκκλησία γνῷ, τοῦθ´ ἡγούμενοι σφίσι τ´ αὐτοῖς καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις πολίταις τετάχθαι. εἴρηται δὲ καὶ πρότερον, ὅτι ἐν μὲν ταῖς φυλετικαῖς ἐκκλησίαις οἱ δημοτικοὶ καὶ πένητες ἐκράτουν τῶν πατρικίων, ἐν δὲ ταῖς λοχίτισιν ἐκκλησίαις οἱ πατρίκιοι παρὰ πολὺ τῶν ἄλλων ἐλάττους ὄντες περιῆσαν τῶν δημοτικῶν.

[11,45] After the overthrow of the decemvirate the first persons to receive the consular office from the people in a centuriate assembly were, as I have stated, Lucius Valerius Potitus and Marcus Horatius Barbatus, who were not only of their own nature favourable to the populace, but had also inherited that political creed from their ancestors. In fulfilment of the promises they had made to the plebeians, when they persuaded them to lay down their arms, that in their administration they would consult all the interests of the people, they secured the ratification in centuriate assemblies of various laws, most of which I need not mention, laws with which the patricians were displeased though they were ashamed (p151) to oppose them, and particularly the one which ordained that the laws passed by the populace in its tribal assemblies should apply to all the Romans alike, having the same force as those which should be passed in the centuriate assemblies. The penalties provided for such as should abrogate or transgress this law, in case they were convicted, were death and the confiscation of their estates.This law put an end to the controversies previously carried on by the patricians against the plebeians when they refused to obey the laws enacted by the latter and would not at all regard the measures passed in the tribal assemblies as joint decrees of the whole state, but as merely private matters for the plebeians only; whereas they considered that any resolution the centuriate assembly passed applied not only to themselves but to the rest of the citizens as well.It has been mentioned earlier46 that in the tribal assemblies the plebeians and the poor prevailed over the patricians, whereas in the centuriate assemblies the patricians, though far less numerous, had the upper hand over the plebeians.