Note 1904 — Chapter XIII · THE COMITIA TRIBUTA AND THE RISE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY From 449 to 287

Livy, iv. 11. 3-7, represents the tribunes of 442 as attempting to call to account the colonial commissioners of that year (cf. p. 288). In 418 they planned to offer a bill for colonizing Labici (Livy iv. 47. 6). In 415 a bill for colonizing Bolae, introduced by a tribune of the plebs, was vetoed by a colleague; Livy iv. 49. 6; cf. Diod. xiii. 42. 6. Many similar instances are given for the time immediately following; cf. Lange, Röm. Alt. ii. 626 f. with citations. Although we may question the truth of these individual cases, we have no ground for doubting that such agitation continued long before the tribunes succeeded in carrying a colonial law.