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Against this phalanx of patrician power what forces could the Plebeians boast?

A certain amount of voting power in the comitia was all that they possessed. But this voting power, except on certain established points—the declaration of war and, when the law was observed, criminal jurisdiction—was very ineffective, for the assembly was wholly dependent for its summons and expression of opinion on the patrician consuls, and liable to interruption from the pious scruples of patrician augurs; and we have already seen how even the choice of magistrates could be hampered by the formalities which still conditioned the election.[346] But, even had these adverse circumstances been avoided, the voting power of the Plebeians was small. The comitia centuriata contained chiefly the propertied—for the most part the landed—class; and even in this assembly the two first classes and the knights, which would have consisted mainly of Patricians, had a majority of votes (118 out of 193). The small farmers and the artisans commanded but 74 or 75 votes; the great mass of the Proletariate was either wholly unrepresented or could dispose of but a single vote. It is important to inquire whether these classes excluded from the centuries were represented elsewhere, or whether there was an assembly possessing any real power in which Patricians and Plebeians were alike represented.