Of greater political importance, however, than the refusal of the {us imagr'num and of the honour of a triumph was the circumstance, that the exclusion of the plebeians sitting in the senate from debate necessarily ceased in respect to those of their number who, as designated or former consuls, ranked among the senators whose opinion had to be asked before the rest; so far it was certainly of great importance for the nobility to admit the plebeian only to a
oflice, and not to the consulate itself.
The history of Rome; tr. with the sanction of the ... v.1. Mommsen, Theodor, 1817-1903
