The equestrian courts were abolished: the senatorial courts were
reinstated. It might be hoped that the senators had profited by their
lesson, and for the future would be careful of their reputation.
Changes were made also in the modes of election to office. The College of
Priests had been originally a close corporation, which filled up its own
numbers. Democracy had thrown it open to competition, and given the choice
to the people. Sylla reverted to the old rule. Consuls like Marius and
Cinna, who had the confidence of the people, had been re-elected year
after year, and had been virtual kings. Sylla provided that ten years must
elapse between a first consulship and a second. Nor was any one to be a
consul who was not forty-three years old and had not passed already
through the lower senatorial offices of praetor or quaestor.
The assembly of the people had been shorn of its legislative powers. There
was no longer, therefore, any excuse for its meeting, save on special
occasions. To leave the tribunes power to call the citizens to the Forum
was to leave them the means of creating inconvenient agitation. It was
ordered, therefore, that the assembly should only come together at the
Senate's invitation. The free grants of corn, which filled the city with
idle vagrants, were abolished. Sylla never courted popularity, and never
shrank from fear of clamor.
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