Gaius Licinius Stolo
"Stolo" redirects here. For the indigenous First Nations people, see Stó:lō.Gaius Licinius (Calvus) Stolo, along with
Lucius Sextius, was one of the two
tribunes of
ancient Rome that opened the
consulship to the
plebeians.
Records indicate he was tribune from
376 BC to
367 BC, during which he passed the
Lex Licinia Sextia restoring the consulship, requiring a plebeian consul seat, limiting the amount of public land that one person could hold, and regulated debts. He also passed a law stipulating that the
Sibylline Books should be overseen by
decemviri, of whom half would be
plebian in order to prevent any falsification in favor of the
patricians. The patricians opposed these laws, though they finally were passed. Licinius was then elected consul for
364 BC and
361 BC.
He was later charges with violating his own laws concerning the ownership of land and was forced to pay a heavy fine.
Although
Livy describes the activities of Gaius Licinius in great detail, it is likely that his description is not accurate; much of it is suspiciously similar to events in the age of the
Gracchi two hundred years later, and it is quite possible that the annalist
Licinius Macer invented episodes of his family's activities.
