When the envoys had executed their commission, a delay nevertheless took place in the appointment of the lawgivers: nor would the point have been settled peacefully, had not the plebeians given up their original demand that the board should be composed of both orders. The arrangement the ruling order agreed to was, that the consulship should be suspended, and that in the mean while ten senators, like a college of interrexes, should be invested with consular, and at the same time with legislative power. Among the ten appointed by virtue of this agreement we find both the consuls of the year 302: and as these were indemnified for the dignity they were forced to resign, so it is probable that the quaestors of blood and the warden of the city, whose offices were likewise transferred to the decemvirate obtained seats in it. Thus the patricians would have four deputies appointed exclusively by themselves, and one whose election they had confirmed; while five places were left open for the free choice of the centuries. Livy evidently must have heard a faint report of an election by which a certain number were added to others previously appointed.

The patricians were the more determined to allow the plebeians no share in this decemvirate, because it was understood as of course, that it was not only to draw up a scheme of laws, but to enact them, and to be the sole magistracy of the state: for in the ancient, commonwealths, when legislators were appointed, they were always entrusted with the whole government; as was the case with Solon, and with that body which from its actions received the name of the Thirty Tyrants.