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THE CONTEST OF THE PLEBEIANS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS.
The plebeians were now (about 475) as numerous as the patricians, if not more so.

Their organization had become perfected, and many of their leaders were persistent in their efforts to better the condition of their followers.

Their especial aim was to raise their civil and political rights to an equality with those of the patricians.

The struggle finally culminated in the murder of one of the Tribunes, Gnarus Genucius, for attempting to veto some of the acts of the Consuls.
VALERO PUBLILIUS, a Tribune, now (471) proposed and carried, notwithstanding violent opposition by the patricians, a measure to the effect that the Tribunes should hereafter be chosen in the _Comitia Tributa_, instead of the _Comitia Centuriata_.