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

PATRICI.: PFATRICII a75..
rTght4s of the child as a filiusfamilias or filiafamlias. people, and were not burghers or patricians.- The
Of these rights, the most important was the ca- senators were a select body of the populus or papacity of being the suus heres of the father. Gene- tricians, which acted as their representative. The
rally, the parent could emancipate his child at his burghers or patricians consisted originally of three
pleasure, and thus deprive him of the rights of distinct tribes, which gradually became united
agnation; but the law in this respect was altered into the sovereign populus. These tribes had
by Justinian (Nov. 89. c. 11), who made the con- founded settlements upon several of the hills which
sent of the child necessary. (Savigny, System, &c., were subsequently included within the precincts of
ii. 49, &c.; Puchta, Inst. iii. 142; Bucking, Inst. the city of Rome. Their names were Ramnes,
i. 224.) [G. L.] Tities, and Luceres, or Ramnenses, Titienses, and
PATRI'CII. This word is a derivative from Lucerenses. Each of these tribes consisted of ten
pater, which in the early times invariably denoted curiae, and each curia of ten decuries, which
a patrician, and in the later times of the republic were established for representative and military
frequently occurs in the Roman writers as equiva- purposes. [SENATUS.] The first tribe, or the
lent to senator. Patricii therefore signifies those Ramnes, were a Latin colony on the Palatine
who belonged to the patres " rex patres cos (sena- hill, said to have been founded by Romulus. As
tores) voluit nominari, patriciosque eorum liberos." long as it stood,alone, it contained only one hun(Cic. de Re Publ. ii. 12; Liv. i. 8; Dionys. ii. 8.) dred gentes, and had a senate of one hundred
It is a mistake in these writers to suppose that members. When the Tities, or Sabine settlers
the patricii were only the offspring of the patres on the Quirinal sand Viminal hills, under kilng
in the sense of senators, and necessarily connected Tatius, became united with the Ramnes, the numwith them by blood. Patres and patricii were ber of gentes as well as that of senators was
originally convertible terms. (Plut. Romul. 13; increased to 200. These two tribes after their
Lydus, (de Mens. i. 20, de Mag. i. 16; Niebuhr, union continued probably for a considerable time
Iist. of Rome, i. p. 336.) The words patres and to be the patricians of Rome, until the third.
patticii have radically and essentially the same tribe, the Luceres, which chiefly consisted of
meaning, and some of the ancients believed that Etruscans, who had settled on the Caelian Hill,
the name patres was given to that particular class also became united with the other two as a
of the Roman population from the fact that they third tribe. When this settlement was made is,
were fathers of families (Plut. Dionys. 1. c.); not certain: some say that it was in the time of
others, that they were called so from their age Romulus (Fest. s. v. Caelius Mons and Luceres;
(Sallust, Catil. 6); or because they distributed Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 55); others that it took
land among the poorer citizens, as fathers did place at a later time. (Tacit. Annal. iv. 65; Fest.
among their children. (Fest. s. v. Patres Senatores; s. v. Tuscumn vicnum.) But the Etruscan settlement
Lyd. de Miens. iv. 50.) But most writers justly was in all probability older than that of the Sabines
refer the name to the patrocinium which the pa- (see Gittling, Geschl. der RMm. Staatsverf: p. 54,
tricians exercised over the whole state, and over &c.), though it seems occasionally to have received
all classes of persons of whom it was composed. new bands of Etruscan settlers even as late as the
(Plut. and Sallust, 1. c.; Zonaras, vii. 8; Suidas, time of the republic.
s. V. Ia'rpoltoe.) The amalgamation of these three tribes did not
In considering who the patricians were, we have take place at once: the union between Latins and
to distinguish three periods in the history of Rome. Sabines is ascribed to the reign of Romulus, thoughl
The first extends from the foundation of the city it does not appear to have been quite perfect, since
down to the establishment of the plebeians as a the Latins on some occasions claimed a superiority
second order; the second, from this event down to over the Sabines. (Dionys. ii. 62.) The Luceres
the time of Constantine, during which time the existed for a long time as a separate tribe withpatricians were a real aristocracy of birth, and as out enjoying the same rights as the two others
such formed a distinct class of Roman citizens op- until Tarquinius Priscus, himself an Etruscan,
posed to the plebeians, and afterwards to the new caused them to be placed on a footing of equality
plebeian aristocracy of the nobiles: the third period with the others. For this reason he is said to
extends from Constantine down to the middle ages, have increased the number of senators to 300
during which the patricians were no longer an (Dionys. iii. 67; Liv. i. 35; Cic. de Re Pubi.
aristocracy of birth, but were persons who merely ii. 20; compare SENATUS), and to have added two
enjoyed a title, first granted by the emperors and Vestal virgins to the existing number of four.
afterwards by the popes also. (Dionys. I. c.; Fest. s. v. Sex Vestae sacerdotes;
First Period: from the foundation of the city, to Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, i. p. 302, &c.) The Lu.
the establishzment of tihe plebeian order. Niebuhr's ceres, however, are, notwithstanding this equalisaresearches into the early history of Rome have tion, sometimes distinguished from the other tribes
established it as a fact beyond all doubt, that dur- by the name patres minorum gentiume,; though
ing this period the patricians comprised the whole this name is also applied to other members of the
body of Romnans who enjoyed the full franchise, patricians, e. g. to those plebeian families who
that they were the populus Romanus, and that were admitted by Tarquinius Priscus into the three
there were no other real citizens besides them. tribes, and in comparison with these, the Luceres
(Niebuhr, list. of Rome, ii. pp. 224, 225. note 507; are again called patres majorum gentium. (Compare
Cic. pro Caecin. 35.) The patricians must be re- Niebuhr, i. p. 304, and Giittling, p. 226, &c.)
garded as conquerors who reduced the earlier in- That this distinction between patres majorlm and
habitants of the places they occupied to a state of minorum gentium was kept up in private life, at a
servitude, which in our authorities is designated by time when it had no value whatever in a political
the terms cliens and plebs. The other parts of the point of view, is clear from Cicero (ad I'am. ix.
Roman population, namely clients and slaves, did 21). Tullus Hostilius admitted several of the
not belong to the populus Romanus, or sovereign noble gentes of Alba among the patricians (in