From the time that equal rights were granted to all the citizens, Rome advanced rapidly in wealth and power; the subjugation of Italy was effected within the succeeding century, and that was soon followed by foreign conquests.
22.

In the early part of the struggle between the patricians and plebeians, the magistracy, named the censorship, was instituted.

The censors were designed at first merely to preside over the taking of the census, but they afterwards obtained the power of punishing, by a deprivation of civil rights, those who were guilty of any flagrant immorality.

The patricians retained exclusive possession of the censorship, long after the consulship had been opened to the plebeians.
23.

The senate,[11] which had been originally a patrician council, was gradually opened to the plebeians; when the free constitution was perfected, every person possessing a competent fortune that had held a superior magistracy, was enrolled as a senator at the census immediately succeeding the termination of his office.
_Questions for Examination_.
1.