Tribune
Livy writes, “Those who occupied the public land , most of whom were senators, complained that a chief of the state was ostentatiously behaving like a tribune in order to court popularity by giving away what belonged to others.” The emblematic tribune depicts the chief as an adjudicator who considers that he has the authority to bestow land to individuals, which is not a constituent of his mandate.
Beasts
Livy wonders, “ For what other effect would indiscriminate intermarriage have expect to encourage the patricians and plebeians to mate like beasts in the wild?” Livy’s rhetoric question accentuates the antagonism towards the intermarriages. The emblematic beast mirrors the opponents’ reasoning regarding the upsurge of immorality should the intermarriage be sanctioned.
“Creature at war”
Livy questions, “ A person born from such a union would not know to what family he belonged or what his religious inheritance was. He would be half-patrician, half-plebeian, a creature at war with himself.” The allegorical creature alludes to the compound identities that would surface as a result of intermarriages. War implies that half-casts would find it strenuous to delineate their lineages as a result of blurring clans which is attributed to intermarriage.
