Note 60 — LIFE OF CAIUS MARIUS.

The words Patron and Client are now used by us, but, like many other Roman terms, not in the original or proper sense. Dominus and Servus, Master and Slave, were terms placed in opposition to one another, like Patron and Client, Patronus and Cliens. A master who manumitted his slave became his Patronus, a kind of father (for Patronus is derived from Pater, father): the slave was called the Patron's Libertus, freedman; and all Liberti were included in the class Libertini. Libertinus is another example of a word which we use (libertine), though not in the Roman sense. But the old Roman relation of Patron and Client was not this. Originally the heads of distinguished families had a number of retainers or followers who were called their Clients, a word which perhaps originally meant those who were bound to hear and to obey a common head. It was a tradition that when Atta Claudius, the head of the great Claudian Gens, who were Sabines, was admitted among the Roman Patricians, he brought with him a large body of clients to whom land was given north of the Anio, now the Teverone. (Livius, 2, c. 16; Suetonius, Tiberius, c. 1.) The precise relation of the early clients to their leaders is one of the most difficult questions in Roman History, and much too extensive to be discussed here. It was the Patron's duty to protect his clients and to give them his aid and advice in all matters that required it: the clients owed to the Patron respect and obedience and many duties which are tolerably well ascertained. Long after the strictness of the old relation had been relaxed, the name continued and some of the duties, as we see in this sentence of Marius, where the Patron claimed to be exempted from giving evidence against his client. In the last periods of the Republic and under the Empire, Patron was sometimes simply used as Protector, adviser, defender, and Client to express one who looked up to another as his friend and adviser, particularly in all matters where his legal rights were concerned. Great men under the later Republic sometimes became the Patrons of particular states or cities, and looked after their interests at Rome. We have adopted the word Client in the sense of one who goes to an attorney or solicitor for his legal advice, but with us the client pays for the advice, and the attorney is not called his patron. A modern patron is one who patronises, protects, gives his countenance to an individual, or to some association of individuals, but frequently he merely gives his countenance or his name, that being as much as can be asked from him or as much as he will give.

The Clients must be distinguished from the Plebs in the early history of Rome, though there can be no doubt that part of the Plebeian body was gradually formed out of clients.