This meant, that while the plebeians were able to vote, if the patrician classes voted together, the could control the vote. Ancient Rome, according to Ralph Mathisen, author of "Ancient Roman Civilization: History and Sources," made political reforms, such as the introduction of the Council of the Plebs and the Tribunes of the Plebs. These two political bodies were created to give the plebeians a voice. After the Conflict of the Orders, according to Mathisen, Plebeians were able to rise in politics and become members of the Senate, which used to be exclusively for patricians. A marriage between a patrician and a plebeian was the only way to legally integrate the two classes. However, once the Twelve Tables were written down, a law was written which made the marriage between the two classes illegal. If a marriage was to occur between a patrician and a plebeian, the children of that marriage would then be given patrician status. This law was created to prevent the classes from mixing. In Ancient Rome women did not have power in the household. However, according to Mathisen, having a recognized marriage, so not illegally marrying into the other class, was important. Having a legally recognized marriage ensured that the children born from the marriage were given Roman citizenship and any property they might inherit. "Patrician" and "plebeian" are still used today to refer to groups of people of high and lower classes. The following were regarded as patrician, although they may have had plebeian members or branches. A number of other originally belonged to the patricians but were known chiefly for their plebeian branches. Among the patricians, certain families were known as the , the greatest or perhaps the most noble houses. The other patrician families were called the . Whether this distinction had any legal significance is not known, but it has been suggested that the , or Speaker of the Senate, was traditionally chosen from the . No list of the gentes maiores has been discovered, and even their number is entirely unknown. It has been suggested that the Aemilii, Claudii, Cornelii, Fabii, Manlii, and Valerii were amongst them. The "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology" suggests that the gentes maiores consisted of families that settled at Rome in the time of Romulus, or at least before the destruction of Alba Longa. The noble Alban families that settled in Rome in the time of Tullus Hostilius then formed the nucleus of the gentes minores.