Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

PATIBULUM.

286

PATRICII.

common red earthenware, on which an orna-
mental pactern was drawn, and which were
sometimes entirely black. The more va-
luable paterae were metallic, being chiefly of
bronze; but every family, raised above po-
verty, possessed one of silver, together with
a silver salt-cellar. The accompanying cut
exhibits a highly ornamented patera, made
of bronze. The view of the upper surface is
accompanied by a side-view, showing the
form and depth of the vessel.

PATIBULUM. [Furca.]

PATINA (Aexdi/T)), a basin or bowl of
earthenware, rarely of bronze or silver. The
patina was of a form intermediate between
the patera and the olla, not so flat as the
former, nor so deep as the latter. The most
frequent use of the patina was in cookery.

PATRES. [Patricii.]

PATRIA POTESTAS. Potestas signifies
generally a power or faculty of any kind by
which we do anything. " Potestas," says
Paulas, a Roman jurist, " has several signi-
fications : when applied to magistrates, it is
Imperium ; in the case of children, it is the
patria potestas; in the case of slaves, it is
Dominium." According to Paulus then, po-
testas, as applied to magistrates, is equi-
valent to imperium. Thus we find potestas
associated with the adjectives praetoria, con-
sularis. But potestas is applied to magis-
trates who had not the imperium, as for
instance to quaestors and tribuni plebis ; and
potestas and imperium are often opposed in
Cicero. [Imtkrium.] Thus it seems that
this word potestas, like many other Roman
terms, had both a wider signification and a
narrower one. In its wider signification it
might mean all the power that was delegated
to any person by the state, whatever might
be the extent of that power. In its narrower
significations, it was on the one hand equi-
valent to imperium; and on the other, it
expressed the power of those functionaries
who had not the imperium. Sometimes it
was used to express a magistratus, as a
person; and hence in the Italian language
the word podesta signifies a magistrate. Po-
testas is also one of the words by which is
expressed the power that one private person
has over another, the other two being maims
and mancipium. The potestas is either do-
minica, that is, ownership as exhibited in
the relation of master and slave [Servus] ;
or patria as exhibited in the relation of
father and child. The mancipium was framed
after the analogy of the potestas dominica.
[Mancipium.] Patria potestas fhen signifies
the power which a Roman father had over
the persons of his children, grandchildren,
and other descendants {filiifamilias, filiae-

famiJias), and generally all the rights which
he had by virtue of his paternity. The
foundation of the patria potestas was a legal
marriage, and the birth of a child gave it
full effect. [Matrimonium.] It does not
seem that the patria potestas was ever
viewed among the Romans as absolutely
equivalent to the dominica potestas, or as
involving ownership of the child ; and yet
the original notion of the patria came very
near to that of the dominica potestas. Ori-
ginally the father had the power of life and
death over his son as a member of his fami-
lia; and he could sell him, and so bring him
into the mancipii causa. He could also give
his daughter in marriage, or give a wife to
his son, divorce his child, give him in adop-
tion, and emancipate him at his pleasure.

PATRICII. This word is evidently a de-
rivative from pater, which frequently occurs
in the Roman writers as equivalent to se-
nator. Patricii therefore signifies those who
belonged to the patres, but it is a mistake to
suppose that the patricii were only the off-
spring of the patres in the sense of senators.
On the contrary, the patricians were, in the
early history of Rome, the whole body of
Roman citizens, the populus Romanus, and
there were no real citizens besides them.
The other parts of the Roman population,
namely clients and slaves, did not belong to
the populus Romanus, and were not burghers
or patricians. The senators or patres (in
the narrower sense of the word) were a
select body of the populus or patricians,
which acted as their representatives. The
burghers or patricians consisted originally of
three distinct tribes, which afterwards be-
came united into the sovereign populus.
These tribes had founded settlements upon
several of the hills which were subsequently
included within the precincts of the city of
Rome. Their names were Ramnes, Tities,
and Luceres, or Ramnenses, Titienscs, and
Lucerenses. Each of these tribes consisted
of ten curiat, and each curia of ten gentes,
and of the same number of decuries, which
were established for representative and mili-
tary purposes. [Sknatvs.] The first tribe,
or the Ramnes, were a Latin colony on the
Palatine hill, said to have been founded by
Romulus. As long as it stood alone, it con-
tained only one hundred gentes, and had a
senate of one hundred members. "When the
Tities, or Sabine settlers on the Quirinal
and Viminal hills, under king Tatius, became
united with the Ramnes, the number of
gentes, as well as that of senators, was in-
creased to 200. These two tribes after their
union continued probably for a considerable
time to be the patricians of Rome, until the