<P> During the regal period, the king nominated two quaestors to serve as his assistants, and after the overthrow of the monarchy, the Consuls retained this authority . However, in 447 BC, Cicero tells us that the Quaestors began to be elected by a tribal assembly that was presided over by a magistrate . It seems as though this was the first instance of a joint Patricio - Plebeian Tribal Assembly, and thus was probably an enormous gain for the Plebeians . While Patricians were able to vote in a joint assembly, there were never very many Patricians in Rome . Thus, most of the electors were Plebeians, and yet any magistrate elected by a joint assembly had jurisdiction over both Plebeians and Patricians . Therefore, for the first time, the Plebeians seemed to have indirectly acquired authority over Patricians . Most contemporary accounts of an assembly of the Tribes refer specifically to the Plebeian Council . </P> <P> The distinction between the joint Tribal Assembly (composed of both Patricians and Plebeians) and the Plebeian Council (composed only of Plebeians) is not well defined in the contemporary accounts, and because of this, the very existence of a joint Tribal Assembly can only be assumed through indirect evidence . During the 4th century BC, a series of reforms were passed (the leges Valeriae Horatiae or the "laws of the Consul Publius Valerius Publicola and the Dictator Quintus Hortensius"), which ultimately required that any law passed by the Plebeian Council have the full force of law over both Plebeians and Patricians . This gave the Plebeian Tribunes, who presided over the Plebeian Council, a positive character for the first time . Before these laws were passed, Tribunes could only interpose the sacrosanctity of their person (intercessio) to veto acts of the senate, assemblies, or magistrates . It was a modification to the Valerian law in 449 BC which first allowed acts of the Plebeian Council to have the full force of law over both Plebeians and Patricians, but eventually the final law in the series was passed (the "Hortensian Law"), which removed the last check that the Patricians in the senate had over this power . </P> <P> In the decades following the passage of the Licinio - Sextian law of 367 BE, a series of laws were passed which ultimately granted Plebeians political equality with Patricians . The Patrician era came to a complete end in 287 BC, with the passage of the Hortensian law . When the Curule Aedileship had been created, it had only been opened to Patricians . However, an unusual agreement was ultimately secured between the Plebeians and the Patricians . One year, the Curule Aedileship was to be open to Plebeians, and the next year, it was only to be open to Patricians . Eventually, however, this agreement was abandoned and the Plebeians won full admission to the Curule Aedileship . In addition, after the Consulship had been opened to the Plebeians, the Plebeians acquired a de facto right to hold both the Roman Dictatorship and the Roman Censorship since only former Consuls could hold either office . 356 BC saw the appointment of the first Plebeian Dictator, and in 339 BC the Plebeians facilitated the passage of a law (the lex Publilia), which required the election of at least one Plebeian Censor for each five - year term . In 337 BC, the first Plebeian Praetor (Q. Publilius Philo) was elected . In addition, during these years, the Plebeian Tribunes and the senators grew increasingly close . The senate realized the need to use Plebeian officials to accomplish desired goals, and so to win over the Tribunes, the senators gave the Tribunes a great deal of power, and unsurprisingly, the Tribunes began to feel obligated to the senate . As the Tribunes and the senators grew closer, Plebeian senators were often able to secure the Tribunate for members of their own families . In time, the Tribunate became a stepping stone to higher office . </P> <P> During the era of the kingdom, the Roman King appointed new senators through a process called lectio senatus, but after the overthrow of the kingdom, the Consuls acquired this power . Around the middle of the 4th century BC, however, the Plebeian Council enacted the "Ovinian Plebiscite" (plebiscitum Ovinium), which gave the power to appoint new senators to the Roman Censors . It also codified a commonplace practice, which all but required the Censor to appoint any newly elected magistrate to the senate . While this was not an absolute requirement, the language in the law was so strict that the Censors rarely disobeyed it . It is not known what year this law was passed, although it was probably passed between the opening of the Censorship to Plebeians (in 339 BC) and the first known lectio senatus by a Censor (in 312 BC). By this point, Plebeians were already holding a significant number of magisterial offices, and so the number of Plebeian senators probably increased quickly . It was, in all likelihood, simply a matter of time before the Plebeians came to dominate the senate . </P>

Why did the roman patricians need the roman plebeians
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