PLEBS- RUSTICA ET URBANA.

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Atticus; and we find the two Censors, Livius and Nero, were Equites, Liv. xxix. 37. but because they had been generally so at their first institution; and among the Romans men were called Juvenes till near fifty. Hence we find Julius Cæsar called Adolescentulus, when he stood candidate for being high-priest, although he was then thirtysix years old, Sall. Cat. 49. And Cicero calls himself Adolescens when he was Consul, Phil. ii. 5. Under the Emperors, the heirs of the empire were called Principes Juventutis, Suet. Calig. 15. vel juvenum, Ovid. Pont. ii. 5. 41. We find this name also applied to the whole Equestrian order, Liv. xlii. 61.

THE PLEBEIAN OR POPULAR ORDER.

ALL the other Roman citizens, besides the Patricians and Equites, were called PLEBS or POPULUS.* Populus sometimes comprehends the whole nation; as, CLEMENTIA ROMANI POPULI: or all the people except the senate; as, SENATUS POPULUSQUE Romanus. In which last sense plebs is also often used; as when we say, that the Consuls were created from the plebeians, that is, from those who were not Patricians. But plebs is usually put for the lowest common people; hence, ad populum plebemque referre, Cic. Fam. viii. 8. So Gell. x. 10. Thus Horace: Plebs eris, i. e. unus e plebe, a plebeian, not an Eques, Ep. i. 1. 59. who also uses plebs for the whole people, Od. iii. 14. 1.‡

The common people who lived in the country, and cultivated the ground, were called PLEBS RUSTICA, Liv. xxxv. 1. Anciently the senators also did the same, Cic. de Sen. 16. but not so in aftertimes, Liv. iii. 26. The common people who lived in the city, merchants, mechanics, &c. Cic. Off. i. 42. were called PLEBS URBANA, Sall. Cat. 37. Both are joined, Ib. Jug. 73. §

"How the Roman commonalty, the plebs, originated, is visible in the traditions which represent all the conquests before the time of Servius Tullius to have been of such a kind, that many places were converted into colonies, others destroyed, and their inhabitants carried to Rome; where they, as well as the citizens of the former, received the Roman franchise."-Nieb. i. p. 354.

+"When Patricius is opposed to plebeius, or plebs, it is not a distinction of rank which is implied, but of birth or descent. Many of the knights were plebeians; and those Patricians who, by reason of their poverty, or the will of the Censor, were not admitted into the equestrian order, were still not considered as belonging to the plebeians. A plebeian chosen into the senate, and invested with the highest offices, was still termed plebeius. Neither Cato nor Cicero, for example, was entitled to the appellation of Patricius. A person might however be nobilis, though not Patricius. So also there were many Patricians, who were not noble; because none of their ancestors had been elevated to a curule office; for the rank of knight did not ennoble." Crombie's G. ii. p. 305.

The title of patrician belonged only, in a proper sense, to those families of which the senate was composed in the earliest times, before the commons had obtained a promiscuous admission to the public honours; and all other families, however considerable, were constantly styled plebeian.

The following definition of plebs is given in the Institutes: — "Plebs autem a populo eo differt, quo species a genere: nam appellatione populi universi cives significantur, connumeratis etiam patriciis et senatoribus. Plebis autem appellatione, sine

patriciis et senatoribus, cæteri cives significantur."—(L. i. t. 2. § 4.)

"The Roman plebs in early ages consisted exclusively of landholders and fieldlabourers."- Nieb. i. p. 520.

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PATRONS AND CLIENTS.

The PLEBS RUSTICA was the most respectable. (Optima et modestissima, Cic. Rull. ii. 31. laudatissima, Plin. xviii. 3.) The PLEBS URBANA was composed of the poorer citizens, many of whom followed no trade, but were supported by the public and private largesses. (Eos publicum malum alebat; Sallust. Cat. 37.) In the latter ages of the republic, an immense quantity of corn was annually distributed among them at the public expense, five bushels monthly to each man, Sallust. Fragm. edit. Cortii, p. 974. Their principal business was to attend on the tribunes and popular magistrates in their assemblies; hence they were called TURBA FORENSIS, Liv. ix. 46. and from their venality and corruption, OPERÆ CONDUCTÆ vel mercenarii, in allusion to mercenary workmen, Cic. Sext. 17. 27. Q. fratr. ii. 1. Att. i. 13. OPERÆ CONDUCTORUM, Sext. 50. MULTITUDO CONDUCTA, Phil. i. 9. CONCIONES CONDUCTE, Sext. 49. 53. CONCIONALIS HIRUDO ærarii, misera ac jejuna PLEBECULA, Att. i. 16. Fæx ET SORDES URBIS, Ib. 13. URBANA et perdita PLEBS, Id. vii. 3.

Cicero often opposes the populace (populus, plebs, multitudo, tenuiores, &c.) to the principal nobility, (principes delecti, Optimates et optimatium principes, honesti, boni, locupletes, &c.) Cic. Sext.

48. 68. &c.

There were leading men among the populace (duces multitudinum), kept in pay by the seditious magistrates, who used for hire to stimulate them to the most daring outrages, Sallust. Cat. 50. Cic. Sext. 37. 46. The turbulence of the common people of Rome, the natural effect of idleness and unbounded licentiousness, is justly reckoned among the chief causes of the ruin of the republic. Trade and manufactures being considered as servile employments, Sallust. Cat. 4. Dionys. ix. 25.* they had no encouragement to industry; and the numerous spectacles which were exhibited, particularly the shows of gladiators, served to increase their natural ferocity. Hence they were always ready to join in any conspiracy against the state, Sallust. Cat. 37.

OTHER DIVISIONS OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE.

1. PATRONS AND CLIENTS; NOBILES, NOVI, AND IGNOBILES; OPTIMATES, AND POPULARES.

THAT the patricians and plebeians might be connected together by the strictest bonds, Romulus ordained that every plebeian should choose from the patricians any one he pleased as his PATRON or protector, whose CLIENT he was called (quòd eum colebat). It was the part of the patron to advise and to defend his client, to assist him with his interest and substance; in short, to do every thing for him that a parent uses to do for his children. The client was obliged to

* "Cic. Off. i. 42. Illiberales autem et sordidi quæstus mercenariorum, omniumque, quorum operæ, non quorum artes emuntur. Sordidi etiam putandi, qui mercantur a mercatoribus, quod statim vendant; nihil enim proficiunt, nisi admodum mentiantur. Nec vero quidquam est turpius vanitate; opificesque omnes in sordidâ arte versantur: nec enim quidquam ingenuum potest habere officina."— T.

pay all kind of respect to his patron, and to serve him with his life and fortune in any extremity, Dionys. ii. 10.*

It was unlawful for Patrons and Clients to accuse or bear witness against each other; and whoever was found to have acted otherwise, might be slain by any one with impunity, as a victim devoted to Pluto and the infernal gods. Hence both Patrons and Clients vied with one another in fidelity and observance, and for more than 600 years we find no discussions between them, Ibid. Virgil joins to the crime of beating one's parent that of defrauding a client, Æn. vi. 605. It was esteemed highly honourable for a patrician to have numerous clients, both hereditary and acquired by his own merit, Horat. Ep. ii. 1.103. Juvenal. x. 44.

In aftertimes, even cities and whole nations were under the protection of illustrious Roman families; as the Sicilians under the patronage of the Marcelli, Cic. in Cæcil. 4. Verr. iii. 18. Cyprus and Cappadocia under that of Cato, Cic. Fam. xv. 4. the Allobroges under the patronage of the Fabii, Sallust. Cat. 41. the Bononienses, of the Antonii +, Suet. Aug. 17. Lacedæmon, of the Claudii, Id. Tib. 6.、 Thus the people of Puteoli chose Cassius and the Bruti for their patrons, Cic. Phil. ii. 41. Capua chose Cicero, Cic. Pis. 11. Fam. xvi. 11. &c. This however seems to have taken place also at an early period, Liv. ix. 20. &c.t

Those whose ancestors or themselves had borne any curule magistracy, that is, had been Consul, Prætor, Censor, or Curule Ædile, were called NOBILES §, and had the right of making images of

"The clients who neither gained their livelihood by trade, nor had already acquired property, received grants from their patrons of building ground on their estates, together with two acres of arable land; not as property, but as a precarious tenement, which the owner could resume if he felt himself injured. But all, however different in rank and consequence, were entitled to paternal protection from the patron he was bound to relieve their distress, to appear for them in court, to expound the law to them, civil and pontifical. On the other hand, the clients were obliged to be heartily dutiful and obedient to their patron, to promote his honour, to pay his mulcts and fines, to aid him jointly with the members of his house in bearing burthens for the commonwealth, and defraying the charges of public offices, to contribute to the portioning of his daughters, and to ransom him or whoever of his family might fall into an enemy's hands. If the client died without heirs, the patron succeeded to his property." -Nieb. i. p. 280.

+ Hence, in the war of the Triumvirate, when all Italy had espoused the cause of Octavius, the city of Bologna obtained permission to remain neuter, in consequence of its connection with the family of Antony.

"Among the privileges which the Ramnes are said to have claimed, to the exclusion of the other patricians, one is that of receiving strangers as clients. Still more, then, would they claim this against the plebeians: yet, when distinguished men rose up in the latter order, who could afford protection and redress, and grant plots of ground to be held at will, clients attached themselves to them as well as to the patricians. Until the plebeians obtained a share in the consulship, and the usufruct of the domains, free foreigners, with few exceptions, can have applied only to the first order; in which, indeed, there may have been several members with scarcely a client and so long patron and patrician were co-extensive terms."Nieb. i. p. 280.

We may observe, however, with Hooke, that, during the regal state, and for many years after the establishment of the Commonwealth, none but the patricians, i. e. none but the senators, and their descendants, were noble. Hence in many places of Livy and other authors, we find nobilitas used for the patrician order, and so opposed to plebs.

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JUS IMAGINUM

-

NOVI, IGNOBILES, OPTIMATES, ETC.

themselves (JUS IMAGINUM), which were kept with great care by their posterity, and carried before them at funerals, Plin. xxxv. 2.

These images were nothing else but the busts or the effigies of persons down to the shoulders, made of wax, and painted; which they used to place in the courts of their houses (atria), enclosed in wooden cases, and seem not to have brought them out except on solemn occasions, Polyb. vi. 51. There were titles or inscriptions written below them, pointing out the honours they had enjoyed, and the exploits they had performed. (Juvenal. Sat. viii. 69. Plin. xxxv. 2.) Hence imagines is often put for nobilitas, Sallust. Jug. 85. Liv. iii. 58. and ceræ for imagines, Ovid. Amor. i. 8. 65. Anciently this right of images was peculiar to the patricians; but afterwards the plebeians also acquired it, when admitted to curule offices.

Those who were the first of their family that had raised themselves to any curule office, were called Homines NOVI, new men or upstarts. Hence Cicero calls himself Homo per se cognitus, in Cat. i. 11.*

Those who had no images of their own or of their ancestors, were called IGNOBILES.

Those who favoured the interests of the senate, were called OPTIMATES, Liv. ii. 39. and sometimes Proceres or Principes: those who studied to gain the favour of the multitude, were called POPULARES, of whatever order they were, Cic. pro Sext. 45. This was a division of factions, and not of rank or dignity, Dionys. ix. 1. The contests betwixt these two parties excited the greatest commotions in the state, which finally terminated in the extinction of liberty.

II. GENTES INGENUI AND LIBERTINI, ETC. AND FAMILIÆ; NAMES OF THE ROMANS.

THE Romans were divided into various clans (GENTES), and each gens into several families (in FAMILIAS V. Stirpes). Thus, in the Gens Cornelia were the families of the Scipiones, Lentuli, Cethegi, Dolabellæ, Cinna, Syllæ, &c. Those of the same gens were called GENTILES, and those of the same family AGNATI, Cic. Top. c. 6. † Festus in Voce GENTILES. But relations by the father's side were also called Agnati, to distinguish them from Cognati, relations only by the mother's side. An Agnatus might also be called Cognatus, but not * So Persius (iii. 105.) styles those slaves who had acquired liberty by the death of their masters, "hesterni Quirites," or Romans of yesterday : —

"At illum

Hesterni capite induto subiere Quirites."

Induto refers to the cap (pileus) which slaves wore when they were emancipated. They bore him to the tomb (illum subiere).

"We have no express testimony positively denying the existence of a family affinity among the members of a Roman gens. But, had Cicero believed in the common descent of the Roman gentiles, his definition would have been made without trouble; as it is, however, he says not a syllable of this; but determines the notion of them by a succession of attributes, each giving it greater and greater precision; adding, to their bearing a common name,—their descent from freemen; without any stain of slavery among their ancestors; without their having ever incurred any legal disability, whether public or private. Hereby even the freed clients, though they bore the gentile name of their patrons, are expressly excluded: while the freeborn foreigners, who acquired that name together with the Roman franchise, are recognised by the very exclusion of the clients. The Cornelii as a gens had common religious rites; but we cannot, on that account, assume that an original kindred existed between the Scipios and the Syllas." Nieb. i. p. 270.

GENTES AND FAMILIE NAMES OF THE ROMANS.

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the contrary. Thus patruus, the father's brother, was both an agnatus and cognatus: but avunculus, the mother's brother, was only a cognatus, Digest.

Anciently Patricians only were said to have a gens, Liv.x. 8.* Hence some patricians were said to be majorum gentium, and others minorum gentium, Cic. Fam. ix. 21. But when the plebeians obtained the right of intermarriage with the patricians [A. U. 309], and access to the honours of the state, they likewise received the rights of gentes (jura gentium, vel gentilia); which rights were then said to be confounded by these innovations, Liv. iv. 1. &c. Hence, however, some gentes were patrician, and others plebeian; and sometimes in the same gens there were some families of patrician rank and others of plebeian, Suet. Tib. 1.† Hence also sine gente, for libertinus et non generosus, ignobly born, Horat. Sat. ii. 5. 15. ‡

To mark the different gentes and familiæ, and to distinguish the individuals of the same family, the Romans, at least the more noble of them, had commonly three names, the Prænomen, Nomen, and Cognomen, Juvenal. v. 126. Quinctil. viii. 3. 27.

The PRÆNOMEN was put first, and marked the individual. It was commonly written with one letter; as, A. for Aulus; C. Caius; D. Decimus; K. Kæso; L. Lucius; M. Marcus; M'. Manius; N. Numerius; P. Publius; Q. Quintus; T. Titus; sometimes with two letters,

"Plebes dicitur (according to Capito) in quâ gentes civium patricia non insunt. (Gellius, x. 20.) Instead of a patrician, Livy says, vir patriciae gentis: of L. Tarquitius, iii. 27.; of P. Sestius, iii. 33.; of M. Manlius, vi. 11.” — Nieb. i. p. 276.

+"The Claudian house contained the Marcelli; plebeians, equal to the Appii in the splendour of the honours they attained unto, and beyond comparison more beneficial to the commonwealth: such plebeian families evidently arose from marriages of disparagement, contracted before the right of intermarriage existed between the orders. But the Claudian house had also a very large number of low-born persons who bore its name; such as the M. Claudius, who disputed the freedom of Virginia: nay, according to an opinion of earlier times, as the case in Cicero (de Orat. i. 39.) proves, it contained the freedmen and their descendants. Thus among the Gaels, the nobles and their vassals formed the clan of the Campbells: if we apply the Roman phrase to them, the former had it, the latter only belonged to it." Nieb. i. p. 276.

"To assist their indigent fellows in bearing extraordinary burthens, was an obligation which bound the members of the house, as well as the clients; this is a bond, however, which did not outlive old times and old manners. Not more than a single instance of it is mentioned; when the clients and gentiles of Camillus paid the fine for him to which he had been sentenced. (Livy, v. 32.) Subsequently, the custom will have grown obsolete: the gentiles were certainly not called upon, except when the means of the clients were inadequate; and when the relations of clientship had extended over the whole of Italy, and still further, there was so seldom occasion to do so, that the legal principle itself was forgotten."— Nieb. i. p. 272. "Dionysius says, Romulus divided the curies into decads: what other subdivision can be meant here than that into houses (gentes)? Such an one, that ten houses were assigned to each cury, and the three tribes contained 300. Hence the patrician tribes might also be called centuries, as they are in Livy; they contained each 100 houses. Here we see the numerical basis of the Roman divisions, three multiplied into ten. Moreover, it corresponds with the 300 fathers in the senate and if the captain and burgess of each house were called a decurion, there is no longer any thing strange in the senators of the colonies and provincial towns bearing that name. Such numerical proportions are an irrefragable proof that the Roman houses were not more ancient than the constitution; but corporations formed by a legislator to harmonise with its plan." - P. 273. 290.