office. The clientes were strangers who had come to Rome to better their condition, or the former inhabitants of conquered territory, or freedmen. Not being members of any one of the recognized gentes, they gained certain privileges by attaching themselves to the head of a family belonging to a gens. Their protected was known as a patronus, who represented them before the law. They did not have the full right to own land, but were allowed to hold it on the condition of giving a part of the return from it to their patronus. Clients, who were artisans, similarly gave to him a part of the profits of their labor. The relation existing between a cliens and his patronus was an hereditary one. The origin of the plebeians and the relation which they bore to the clientes is somewhat obscure, but they were probably strangers who settled in Rome with the king as their patronus, or clientes whose relation of dependence was brought to an end with the consent of their patronus, or through the disappearance of the family to which they were attached. In return for the service which they rendered in the army the Servian reform granted them ius commercii. They had the right to marry within their own class, but they were not allowed to marry patricians.
21. The Curiae. The fundamental unit in the division of the people for political purposes in the primitive state was the curia, whose organization resembled that of the family in that it had common religious rites, common festivals, and a common hearth. The thirty curiae included not only the patricians but also the clientes, — and probably the plebeians, — although the plebeians and clients had no vote. The curiae constituted the populus Romanus Quiritium, and the comitia curiata, the organization based on them, was the only popular assembly of a political or semi-political character during the regal period.
