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

PATRICE!.

287

PATROXUS.

third tribe, the Luceres, which chiefly con-
sisted of Etruscans, who had settled on the
Caelian hill, also became united with the
other two as a third tribe. The amalgama-
tion of these three tribes did not take place
at once : the union between Latins and Sa-
bines is ascribed to the reign of Romulus,
though it does not appear to have been quite
perfect, since the Latins on some occasions
claimed a superiority over the Sabines. The
Luceres existed for a long time as a separate
tribe without enjoying the same rights as the
two other tribes, until Tarquinius Priscus,
himself an Etruscan, caused them to be
placed on a footing of equality with the
others. For this reason he is said to have
increased the number of senators to 300.
The Luceres, however, are, notwithstanding
this equalisation, sometimes distinguished
from the other tribes by the name patres or
patrieU minorum gentium. During the time
of the republic, distinguished strangers and
wealthy plebeians were occasionally made
Roman patricians ; for instance, Appins Clau-
dius and his gens, and Domitius Aheuobar-
bus. When the plebeians became a distinct
class of citizens [Plebes], the patricians, of
course, ceased to be the only class of citizens,
but they still retained the exclusive posses-
sion of all the power in the state. All
civil and religious offices were in their posses-
sion, and they continued as before to be the
populus, the nation now consisting of the
populus and the plebes. In their relation to
the plebeians or the commonalty, the patri-
cians were a real aristocracy of birth. A
person born of a patrician family was and
remained a patrician, whether he was rich
or poor, whether he was a member of the
senate, or an eques, or held any of the great
offices of the state, or not: there was no
power that could make a patrician a ple-
beian. As regards the census, he might
indeed not belong to the wealthy classes, but
his rank remained the same. The only way
in which a patrician might become a plebeian
was when of his own accord he left his gens
and curia, gave up the sacra, &c. A ple-
beian, on the other hand, or even a stranger,
might be made a patrician by a lex curiata.
But this appears to have been done very
seldom ; and the consequence was, that in
the course of a few centuries the number of
patrician families became so rapidly dimi-
nished, that towards the close of the republic
there were not more than fifty such families.
Although the patricians throughout this
whole period had the character of an aris-
tocracy of birth, yet their political rights
were not the same at all times. During the
first centuries of the republic there was an

almost uninterrupted struggle between pa-
tricians and plebeians, in which the former
exerted every means to retain their exclusive
rights, but which ended in the establishment
of the political equality of the two orders.
[Plebes.] Only a few insignificant priestly
offices, and the performance of certain an-
cient religious rites and ceremonies, remained
the exclusive privilege of the patricians ; of
which theyr were the prouder, as in former
days their religious power and significance
were the basis of their political superiority.
At the time when the struggle between pa-
tricians and plebeians ceased, a new kind of
aristocracy began to arise at Rome, which
was parti)' based upon wealth, and partly
upon the great offices of the republic, and
the term nobiles was given to all per-
sons whose ancestors had held any of the
curule offices. (Compare Nobii.es.) This
aristocracy of nobiles threw the old patri-
cians as a body still more into the shade,
though both classes of aristocrats united as
far as was possible to monopolise all the
great offices of the state. In their dress and
appearance the patricians were scarcely dis-
tinguished from the rest of the citizens, un-
less they were senators, curule magistrates,
or equites, in which case they wore like
others the ensigns peculiar to these classes.
The only thing by which they seem to have
been distinguished in their appearance from
other citizens was a peculiar kind of shoe,
which covered the whole foot and part of the
leg, though it was not as high as the shoes
of senators and curule magistrates. These
shoes were fastened with four strings (cor-
rigiae or lora patricia) and adorned with a
lunula on the top.

PATRIMI ET MATRIMI were children
born of parents, who had been married by
the religious ceremony called confarreatio :
they are almost always mentioned in connec-
tion with religious rites and ceremonies.

PATRONOMI (7raTpoi'0|U.oi), magistrates at
Sparta, who exercised, as it were, a paternal
power over the whole state. They did not
exist till a late period, and they succeeded to
the powers which the ephori formerly pos-
sessed.

PATROXUS. The act of manumission
created a new relation between the manu-
missor and the slave, which was analogous to
that between father and son. The manu-
missor became with respect to the manu-
mitted person his patronus, and the manu-
mitted person became the libertus of the ma-
numissor. The word patronus (from pater)
indicates the nature of the relation. If the
manumissor was a woman, she became pa-
trona. The libertus adopted the gentile name