In the same year Marcus Valerius, consul, procured a law to be passed concerning appeals; more carefully enforced by additional sanctions.

This was the third time, since the expulsion of the kings, of this law being introduced, and always by the same family.

The reason for renewing it so often was, I believe, no other, than that the influence of a few was apt to prove too powerful for the liberty of the commons.

However, the Porcian law seems intended, solely, for the security of the persons of the citizens; as it visited with a severe penalty any one for beating with stripes or putting to death a Roman citizen.

The Valerian law, after forbidding a person, who had appealed, to be beaten with rods and beheaded, added, in case of any one acting contrary thereto, that it shall yet be only deemed a wicked act.