A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

Patricians, Plebeians and Clients 335
form of government. He divided the whole population
into three parts, each of which he placed under the command
of a distinguished person. Then dividing these parts
into ten companies, he appointed the bravest men to be
their leaders. The larger divisions he called tribes, and the
smaller curicB. The leaders of the tribes were tribunes;
those of the curias were curiones. „^
Another division of the population he made on the principle
of honor and worth.
Those who, illustrious by birth
and commended for their virtue, were well-to-do and had
children, he separated from the ignoble and base and needy.
Those of inferior fortune he called plebeians; the better
class he named patres (fathers) because they were older
than the rest, or because they had children, or on account
of their illustrious birth, or for all these reasons. Their
descendants were called patricians. Whenever the king
\\'ished
to bring the patricians together, his heralds used
to summon them by their own name and that of the father;
but the common people were called to the assembly by
servants, who went about trumpeting on ox-horns. /^
After Romulus had distinguished
commons, he passed laws to
the nobles from the
regulate the duties of each
rank. The nobles were to be priests, magistrates, and
judges, and were to help him manage the affairs of the
city. The commons he excused from this business, for
they had neither experience in such matters nor leisure to
attend to them. They were to farm, to rear cattle, and to
carry on the money-making industries, that they might
have no time for party strife, such as we find in other
cities, where those in office abuse the lower classes, and the
base and needy envy the richer citizens.
Placing the plebeians as a trust in the hands of the
patricians, he permitted each conmioner to choose as
Dionysius
ii. 7-14
(abridged).
The social
classes.
Ancient
World, 330 f.
/ The patrons
and the
clients.