Note 1469 — Chapter VII · THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF ROME AND THE INCORPORATION OF ITALY

Vell. ii. 20 “Itaque cum ita civitas Italiae data esset, ut in octo tribus contribuerentur novi cives, ne potentia eorum et multitudo veterum civium dignitatem frangeret plusque possent recepti in beneficium quam auctores beneficii, Cinna in omnibus tribubus eos se distributurum pollicitus est.” Appian (B.C. i. 49) seems to speak of the creation of ten new tribes (δεκατεύοντες ἀπέφηναν ἑτέρας ἐν αἷς ἐχειροτόνουν ἔσχατοι). The attempt to reconcile these accounts by supposing that they refer to different classes of allies or are the respective products of the two acts of legislation (Kubitschek Imp. Rom. trib. descr.; Beloch der Italische Bund) receives some epigraphic support, but rests either on a correction of Appian’s text or on the assumption that his account refers to ten of the old tribes.