monly accompanied him. But if the head of the Senate, as an individual magistrate, was inferior in consideration to the head of the Celeres, on account of the high military functions which the latter exercised, the civil character of the Senate, collectively, did not preclude it from holding the first place amongst the institutions of Rome. Its acts, the Senatus Consulta, though never independent, as if they had been laws, were, almost from the first, the mainspring of the public legislation and administration. It was itself rude enough, undoubtedly, in its earlier days; there was no temple then, of majestic form, to protect its session; 36 nor were there the memories of century upon century to inflate its deliberations; but it was still the profound and faithful bosom 37 whose breathings were nearly as much respected by the king as by the slave.

Such were the institutions 38 to create distinctions amongst the class to which they exclusively belonged; but as the Tribes united the Patricians on terms of comparative equality, before they need be supposed to have had their magistracies or assemblies, so the Gens, or Name, of which the Tribe itself was formed, continued, as the foundation of every institution, to preserve the equilibrium that offices and dignities might otherwise have disturbed. The liberty of

rites;

36 "Buccina cogebat priscos ad verba Qui- this history to describe the magistracies and assemblies by their action, as opportunity may offer, after

Centum illi in prato sæpe Senatus

erat," etc.— Prop., IV. 1. 11, et seq.

37 "Fidum et altum pectus." Val. Max., II. 2. 1.

99 their constitution has first been simply defined.

38 It will be my plan throughout

39

Rome, at its starting-point, was in the leash of the Patricians, and of them alone. For no other than one of their order was received into the Name; no others, therefore, besides themselves, were considered free to use the race-course or to win the goal. But of their number, though some might be denied the attainment of the rank and the authority they desired, all, nevertheless, through their Names, were in possession of the same hopes for the future that were engrossed for the present by the more fortunate, rather than by the more illustrious. The point to mark is this, that even amongst the Patricians of Rome there is a beginning to be made in the history of the development of Roman liberty.

It may already appear strange to have passed over the royal power, except in mentioning the origin of the early institutions. The king, it is true, was at the head of every one of these, either as the general, the judge, the lawgiver, or the priest. The festival and the sacrifice were, to a certain degree, under his superintendence; the Senate or the Curies waited for his summons to assemble; their legislation was subject to his proposal or his approval, and the laws they passed were committed to him, or to the judges he appointed, for interpretation and execution; while

40

39 Die Glieder einer Gens ..... auch ingenui genannt wurden." Ruperti, Röm. Alt., II. p. 12. See Festus, s. v. Patricios; Cicero, Topic., 6, etc. As Hugo remarks, our word gentleman has some association with the old gentilis, the

VOL. I.

37

member of the Gens. Hist. Rom. Law, Sect. LXX. It soon happened, however, as the freedmen and Plebeians came into existence at Rome, that there were ingenui who were not gentiles.

40 Dionysius relates that Romulus

41

the army was always gathered under his command. But, if there be any trustworthiness in the olden legends, the royal authority, though thus extensive in appearance, and perhaps in claim, was not only subordinate to the Patrician right of appeal, but was actually dependent, in great degree, upon the advice or the consent of the Patricians, by whom it was considered as much in their own control as of their own election.42 Romulus was represented as the leader of the heroes who were fond of war; Numa, as the chief of the nation which inclined to peace: but the power of both was a gift they had received, rather than any right they had, of themselves, obtained. The king, in short, was the superior Patrician; unlike the rest, perhaps, in no respect more strikingly than in being supported from lands cultivated at the common cost, without his toil or care.43

The only subjects, therefore, of the earlier reigns were those the Patricians may have had themselves. It is of a piece with Plutarch's good-natured simplicity, that he should have supposed the appellation14

himself judged the greatest crimes (tôv ådiknμátwv тà péyiota), and committed the rest (τὰ ἐλάττονα) to the Senators. II. 14. See the whole section concerning the king's authority.

41 See note 77 and text.

42 See the statements in Dion. Hal., II. 14, which are, to say the least, as trustworthy as any recent arguments against them.

43 "Sine regum opera et labore, ut eos nulla privati negotii cura a

populorum rebus abduceret." Cic., De Rep., V. 2. "Au surplus, tous ces rois n'étaient guère que des magistrats ou des Sénateurs. Dans ces petits états de l'antiquité les rois étaient si près du peuple qu'on leur prenait très-aisément mesure." Creuzé de Lesser., De la Liberté, p. 62, 2me. édit.

44 In Latin, Patres (Fathers) as well as Patricii. Plutarch mentions other possible derivations; the most natural of which, undoubtedly, is

46

they bore to have been given them on account of the paternal manner in which their authority was designed to be employed; but it is much more reasonable to derive the name from the resemblance of their power over all other classes to the absolute dominion of a Roman father over his child.45 The first to come. under it were the Clients, who may have been the inferior orders of the various races, united, as we have seen, within the rising state; or were else more gradually collected from amongst the people overcome in war. However or whenever the demarcation between them and the Patricians was made, it appears from the very origin as the separation of a laboring and a subject from a ruling and a warrior class. One of the old historians recounts how Romulus chose to keep his own people fiery soldiers and bold husbandmen; and how he ordered, as if to insure their prosperity, that the arts and the trades of his city should be given over to clients and slaves, who would thus themselves be kept too busy to think of sedition.47 Every client, with his family, was obliged to take or allowed to choose a Patrician for his patron, to whom he and his were bound in certain services, in return for which the patron afforded his favor and his pro

that they were of such good birth as to know who their fathers were! Rom., 13. So Liv., X. 8. Sallust, the best authority, though he would have Patres signify Senators, which is nowise reasonable, says, "Vel ætate vel curæ similitudine appellabantur." Cat., 6.

45 See Chapter IV. following. 46 The clients were sometimes connected with the asylum of the Capitoline. See Niebuhr, Vol. I. p. 165, Amer. edit.

47 Dion. Hal., II. 9, 28.

tection.

It is not easy to define the duties, either of the patron or the client, except in this general way; but there is no occasion to doubt that the connection between them, in its pristine estate, as much secured the welfare of the inferior as it enhanced the dignity of the superior. The client was protected against his unkind patron by laws, which, as must be observed, were made or accepted by the patrons themselves, that is, the Patricians."

48

It was a vain attempt to improve upon a more ancient legend, that would have made Romulus a tyrant, and ascribed his death to the vengeance of the abused Patricians. He may have been unjust or indifferent to any others; but of them he was himself one, — he their chosen chief, and they his trusted followers.49 Later generations believed him to have been translated to the skies, not because he was of divine parentage, but to reward him for his glory in having founded Rome. On earth, he was mourned until his temple was built by his successor, and he could be adored.50

A year passed before the successor was chosen by the Curies; for the Patricians were loath, it was said,

48 There must have been an earlier law than that in the Twelve Tables. See the Æn., VI. 609, with Servius's commentary. "These virtues," says Mr. Mill, in speaking of giving and receiving protection, "belong emphatically to a rude and imperfect state of the social union." Pol. Econ., Vol. II. p. 321, Amer. edit.

49 "Αρξας τε πατρικῶς μᾶλλον ἢ τυραννικῶς, "And he ruled like a

father more than like a tyrant.' Appian., De Regibus, Exc. II. ed. Didot.

Appian, a native of Alexandria, resided at Rome under the Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius, and wrote, or rather compiled, a history of Rome and of the nations connected with the Roman.

50 Ennius ap. Cic., De Rep., I. 41. Plut., Num., 7.