The view formerly adopted, that these -tres viri- belonged to the earliest period, is erroneous, for colleges of magistrates with odd numbers are foreign to the oldest state-arrangements (Chronol.p.

15, note 12).

Probably the well-accredited account, that they were first nominated in 465 (Liv.Ep.

11), should simply be retained, and the otherwise suspicious inference of the falsifier Licinius Macer (in Liv.vii.

46), which makes mention of them before 450, should be simply rejected.