Note 14 — LECTURE II. The Roman and the Teuton. Comparison of the Political and Social Condition of the Empire and its German Neighbours.

Though this word has lately obtained, chiefly through the influence of French writers, rather too wide currency, as the polite equivalent of ‘mob,’ a writer on Roman affairs may with better right employ it, as it is derived from the politics of old Rome. In the Comitia Centuriata, the lowest class of citizens, those who were assessed on a very small amount of property, and who had little beside their children (proles) wherewith to serve the State, were called proletarii. The word seems to have passed out of use before the close of the Republic.