Note 109 — LEX HORATIA VALERIA. FURTHER CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION. MILITARY TRIBUNATE. CENSORSHIP. SP. MÆLIUS. VICTORY OF A. POSTUMIUS TUBERTUS OVER THE VOLSCIANS AND ÆQUIANS. CONQUEST OF FIDENÆ AND VEII.

Enigmatical is what occurs in Livy and elsewhere, that a special law had been granted for a dictator, ut ei equum escendere liceret. The way in which this is interpreted, is that the dictator was not entitled to mount on horseback, whilst the Magister Equitum was. Perhaps the dictator was not only entitled to make use of a carriage, but even he was not entitled to appear in any other way but in a carriage, particularly on his return from battle. To this refers a line in Varro, Dictator ubi currum insedit vehitur usque ad oppidum. Oppidum, according to Varro, is properly speaking the townwall (also a town surrounded by walls in contradistinction to pagus and vicus).