Plebiscitum Ovinium

The Plebiscitum Ovinium was an initiative by the Plebeian Council that transferred the power to revise the list of members of the Roman Senate from consuls to censors.

Date

Since Appius [Claudius Caecus] is said to have changed the membership of the senate during his censorship in 312 BCE, the law must have been passed by then, but not much earlier because the censors of 319 removed a man from his tribe, but not from the Senate.

Reaction

The patricians did not recognize the validity of the Plebiscitum Ovinium, but nevertheless did not attempt to prevent the lectio senatus being carried out by the censors rather than the consuls.