<P> During the early republic, only consuls could revise the list of senators and appoint new members . Shortly before 312 BC, a Plebiscitum Ovinium transferred this power to the censors . By this point, plebeians were already holding a significant number of magisterial offices . Thus, the number of plebeian senators probably increased quickly . However, it remained difficult for a plebeian to enter the senate if he was not from a well - known political family, as a new patrician - like plebeian aristocracy emerged . The old nobility existed through the force of law, because only patricians were allowed to stand for high office . The new nobility existed due to the organization of society . As such, only a revolution could overthrow this new structure . </P> <P> By 287 BC, plebeian indebtedness remained endemic; this resulted in the last plebeian secession, this time to the Janiculum hill . To resolve the situation, a dictator was appointed . The dictator passed a law (the Lex Hortensia), which ended the requirement that the patrician senators must agree before any bill could be considered by the Plebeian Council . The result was that control over the state fell, not onto the shoulders of voters, but to the new plebeian nobility . </P> <P> As a result of the end of the patrician monopoly on senior magistracies, many small patrician gentes faded into history during the 4th and 3rd centuries due to the lack of available positions . They were replaced by plebeian gentes, which rapidly achieved equal political status with the patricians . The most emblematic of these plebeian aristocrats were the Caecilii Metelli, who received 18 consulships until the end of the Republic; the Domitii, Fulvii, Licinii, Marcii, or Sempronii were as successful . About a dozen remaining patrician "progessive" gentes and twenty plebeian ones thus formed a new elite, called the nobiles . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> O: Bearded head of Mars with Corinthian helmet left . </Td> <Td> R: Horse head right, grain ear behind . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> The first Roman silver coin, 281 BC . Crawford 13 / 1 </Td> </Tr> </Table>

Who ruled rome before it became a republic