Thus the plebeians gained a very important step.

This bill is called the PUBLILIAN LAW (_Plebiscitum Publilium_).

(Footnote: All bills passed in the Comitia Tributa were called Plebiscita, and until 286 were not necessarily binding upon the people at large; but this bill seems to have been recognized as a law.) For the next twenty years the struggle continued unabated.

The plebeians demanded a WRITTEN CODE OF LAWS.
We find among all early peoples that the laws are at first the unwritten ones of custom and precedent.

The laws at Rome, thus far, had been interpreted according to the wishes and traditions of the patricians only.