[Footnote 34: In his Roman Questions, Plutarch (Opuscul.
tom. i. p. 505, 506, edit. Graec. Hen. Steph.) states, on
the most constitutional principles, the simple greatness of
the tribunes, who were not properly magistrates, but a check
on magistracy. It was their duty and interest. Rienzi, and
Petrarch himself, were incapable perhaps of reading a Greek
philosopher; but they might have imbibed the same modest
doctrines from their favorite Latins, Livy and Valerius
Maximus.]