Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

296 CLIENS. CLIMA.
It is stated by Niebuhr, that "if a client died Admitting a distinction between the plebs and
without heirs, his patron inherited; and this law the old clientes to be fully established, there is
extended to the case of freedmen; the power of still room for careful investigation as to the real:the patron over whom must certainly have been condition of the clientes, and of the composition of
founded originally on the general patronal right." the Roman state before the estate of the plebs was
This statement, if it be correct, would be consistent made equal to that of the patricians. [G. L.]
with the quasi patria potestas of the patronus. CLIENTE'LA. [CLIENS.]
But if a cliens died with heirs, could he make a CLIMA (cM/iAa), literally a slope or inclination,
will? and if he died witlzout heirs, could he not was used in the mathematical geography of the
dispose of his property by will? and if he could Greeksi" with reference to the inclination of various
not make, or did not make a will, and had heirs, parts of the earth's surface to the plane of the
who must they be? must they be sui hieredes? equator. Before the globular figure of the earth
had he a familia, and consequently agnati? had was known, it was supposed that there was a
he, in fact, that connubium, by virtue of which he general slope of its surface from south to north,
could acquire the patria potestas? He might have and this was called IcMeta. But as the science of
all this consistently with the statement of Diony- mathematical geography advanced, the word was
sius, and yet be a citizen noez optimo jure; for he applied to different belts of the earth's surface,
had not the honores and the other distinguishing which were determined by the different lengths of
privileges of the patricii; and consistently with the longest day at their lines of demarcation.
the statement of Dionysius he could not vote in This division into climates was applied only to
the comitia curiatat. It is not possible to prove the northern hemisphere, as the geographers had
that a cliens had all this, and it seems equally im- no practical knowledge of the earth south of the
possible, from existing evidence, to show what his equator.
rights really were. So far as our extant ancient Ripparchus (about B. C. 160) seems to have
authorities show, the origin of the clientela, and its been the first who made use of this division; his
true character, were unknown to them. There system is explained at length by Strabo (ii.
was a body in the Roman state, at an early period p. 132). Assuming the circumference of a great
of its existence, which was neither patrician nor circle of the earth to be 252,000 stadia, Hipparchus
client, and a body which once did not, but ulti- divided this into 360 degrees, of 700 stadia to
mately did, participate in the sovereign power: each; and then, beginning at the parallel of Mero',
this was the plebs. The clientes also existed in the and proceeding northwards, he undertook to deearliest period of the Romanl state, but our know- scribe the astronomical phenomena observed at each
ledge of the true condition' of this body must re- degree of latitude, or every 700 stadia: among
main inexact, for the want of sufficient evidence in these phenomena, he observed that the length of
amount, and sufficiently trustworthy. the longest day at Merod was 13 hours, and at
It is stated by Livy (ii. 56) that the clientes Syene 13'. The observations of later astronomers
had votes in the comitia of the centuries: they and geographers, such as Geminus, Strabo, Pliny,
were therefore registered in the censors' books, and Ptolemy, are described in the works cited
and could have quiritarian ownership. [CENTUM- below. The following table, from Ukert, shows
VIRI.] They had therefore the commercium, pos- the climates, as given by Ptolemy (Geogr. i. 23).
sibly the connubium, and certainly the suffragium. It will be observed that there are nineteen climates,
It may be doubted whether Dionysius understood the beginning and middle of which are marked by
them to have the suffragium at the comitia centu- lines called parallels, of which the first marks the
riata; but if such was the legal condition of the equator, and the thirty-third the arctic circle. Up
clientes, it is impossible that the exposition of their to this point, there are sixteen climates, of which
relation to the patricians, as given by some modern twelve are determined by the increase of half-anwriters, can be altogether correct. hour in the length of the longest day, the 13th
It would appear, from what -has been stated, and 14th 1 hour, and the 1Sth and 16th 2 hours.
that patronus and patricius were originally con- In the remaining climates, within the arctic circle,
vertible terms, at least until the ldebs obtained the days no longer increase by hours but by
the honores. From that time, many of the reasons months. Elsewhere (Almacg. ii. 6) he makes
for a person being a cliens of a patricius would ten climates north of the' equator, beginning at the
cease; for the plebeians had acquired political im- parallel of Taprobane in lat. 40 15t, and ending at
portance, had become acquainted with the law and that of Thule, in lat. 630; and one to the south,
the legal forms, and were fully competent to advise beginning at the equator, or the parallel of Cape
their clients. This change must have contributed Raptum, and ending at the parallel of Antimeroi
to the destruction of the strict old clientela, and in lat. 160 25'.
was the transition to the clientela of the later ages The term tAiXta was, afterwards applied to the
of the republic. (HLgo,Lezrbuch, &c. vol. i. p. 458.) average temperature of each of these regions, and
It has been conjectured (Becker, tlandbuch der hence our modern use of the word. (Strab. 1. c.
Rieisciens Altesthniiser,'vol. ii. p. 125) that the Dion. Hal. i. 9; Plut. Mar. 11, Aenz. Paul. 5,
clientela was an old Italian institution, which ex- Moral. p. 891; Polyb. vii. 6. ~ 1, x. 1, ~ 3;
isted among some of those people, out of which the Ath. xii. p. 523, e.; Gemin. ElIen. Astron. 5;
Romanus Populus arose. When Tatius and his Plin. H. N. ii. 70-75, s. 73-77; Agathem. i. 3;
Sabines settled in Rome, their clients settled there Cellar. Geo. i. 6; Ukert, Geog. vol. i. Pt. 2,
with them (Dionys. ii. 46); and Attius Clausus pp. 182, &c.) [P. S.]
brought to Rome a large body of clients. (Liv. ii.
16; Dionys. v. 40). It is further conjectured, * The corresponding Latin word is inclinerio
and it is not improbable, that the clientes were (Vitruv. i. 1), also declinatio, deverpentia (comp.
Italians, who had been conquered and reduced to Al. Gell. xiv. 1; Colum. iii. 19). Clima w&nS
a state of subjection. only used at a late period.