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

SG6 GENS. GENS.
with the definition of the Ponitifex; for persons the hereditas, at one period atleast, must have been.
might be of the same genus, and might have sus- a benefit to the members of the gens: Caesar is
tained a capitis diminutio either by adoption or said (Sueton. Jul. 1) to have been deprived of his
adrogation, or by emancipation: in all these cases gentilitiae hereditates.
the genus would remain, for the natural relation — In determining that the property of intestates
ship was not affected by any change in the juris- should ultimately belong to the gens, the law of
tical condition of a person; in the cases of adoption the Twelve Tables was only providing for a case
and adrogation the name would be lost: in the case which in every civilized country -is provided for by
of emancipation it would be retained. If the defi- some positive law; that is, the law finds some rule as
nition of Festus means that among those of the to the disposition of the property of a person who dies
same genus there mafy be gentiles; and among' without having disposed of it or leaving those whom
those of the same name, gentiles may also be in- the law recognizes as immediately entitled to it in
cluded, his definition is true; but neither part of case there is no disposition. The gens had thus a
the definition is absolutely true, nor, if both parts relation to the gentiles, similar to that which subare taken together, is the whole definition abso- sists in modern states between the sovereign power
lutely true. It seems as if;the definition of gentiles and persons dying intestate and without heirs or
was a matter of some difficulty; for while the pos- next of kin. The mode in which such a succession
session of a common name was the simplest general was applied by the gens was probably not detercharacteristic of gentilitas, there were other condi- mined by law; and as the gens was a kind of
tions which were equally essential. juristical person, analogous to the community of a
The name of the gens was generally characterised civitas, it seems not unlikely that originally inherit.
by the termination cia or ia, -as Julia, Cornelia, ances accrued to the gens as suchaI, and were comValeria. mon property. The gens must have had some
When a man died intestate and -Without agnati, eommon property, such as sacella, &c. It would
his familia [FAMILIA] by the law of the Twelve be no difficult transition to imagine, that what
Tables came to the gentiles; and -in'the case of a originally belonged to the gens as such, was in the
lunatic (furiosus) who had no guardians, the guar- course of time distributed'among the members,
dianship of the lunatic and his'property belonged'which would easily take place when the familiae
to the agnati and to the gentiles; to the latter, we included in a gens were reduced to a small number.
may presume, in case the former did not exist. There were certain sacred rites (sacra- gentilitia)
Accordingly, one part of the jus gentilitimn or which belongas to a gens, to the observance of
jus gentilitatis related to successions to the pro- which all the members of a gens, as such, were
perty of intestates, who had no agnati. A notable bound, whether they were members by birth,
example of a dispute on this subject between the adoption, or adrogation. A person was freed from
Claudii and Marcelli is mentioned in a difficult the observance of such sacra, and lost the privileges
passage of Cicero (de Orat. i. 39). The Marcellki connected with his gentile rights, when he lost his
claimed the inheritance of an intestate son of one gens, that is, when he was adrogated, adopted, or
of the liberti or freedmen of their familia (stripe); even emancipated; for adrogation, adoption, and
the Claudii claimed the same by the gentile rights emancipation were accompanied by a diminutio
(gnete). The Marcelli were plebeiaIns and be- capifis.
longed to the patrician Claudia gens. Niebuhr When the adoption was from one familia into:
observes that this claiml of the Claudii is incon- another of the same gens, the name of the gens was
sistent with Cicero's defillition, according to which still retained; and when a son was emancipated,
no descendant of a freedman could be a gentilis; the name of the gens was still retained; and yet
and he concludes that Cicero (that is Scaevola) in both these cases, if we adopt the definition of
nmust have been rnistaken in this part of his defi- Scaevola, the adopted and emancipated persons lost
nition. But it must be observed though the the gentile rights, though they were also freed from
descendants of freedmen might have no claim as the gentile burdens (sEaca). In the case of adopgentiles, the members of a genas might as such tion and adrogation, the adopted and adrogated
have claims against them; mad'in this sense the person who passed into a familia of anothergens,
descendants of freedmen might be gentiles. It must have passed ineto the gens of such familia,
would seem as if the Marcelli uniited to defend and so must have acquired the rights of that gens.
their supposed pational rights to the inheritance Such a person had sustained a capitis diminutio,
of the sons of freedmen against the claims of the and its effect was to destroy his former gentile
gens; for the law of the Twelve:lables gave the eights, together with the rights of agnation. The
inheritunce of a freedmane only, who died intestate gentile rights were in fact implied in the rights of
and without heirs, to his patron, and not the in- agnation, if the pater-familias had a gens. Conseheritance of the son of a freedman. The question quently he who obtained by adrogation or adoption
might be this: whether the law, in the case sup- the rights of agnation, obtained also the gentile
posed, gave the hereditas to the gens as having a rights of his adopted father. In the case of adroright paramount to the patronal right. It may be gation, the adrogated person renounced his gens at
that the Marcelli, as being included in theClaudia the Comitia Curiata, which solemnity might also
gens, were supposed to have imerged their patronal be expressed by the term " sacra detestari," for
rights (if they really existed in the case ii dispute) sacra and gens are often synonymous. Thus, in
in those of the gens. Whether as members of the such case, adrogatio, on the part of the adoptive
gens, the plebeian Marcelli would take as gentiles father, corresponded to detestatio sacrorum on the
what they lost as patroni, may be doubted. part of the adrogated son. This detestatio sacroIt is generally said or supposed that the here- rum is probably the same thing as the sacrorumn
ditas which came to a gens was divided among the alienatio mentioned by Cicero (Orator, c. 42). It
gentiles, which nmust meanl the heads of fainiliae. was the duty of the pontifices to look after the due
This may be so; at least we must conceive that observation of the gentile sacra, and to see that