Note 263 — Chapter III · THE THIRTY-FIVE TRIBES

Mommsen’s theory of gentile ownership, adopted by Kubitschek, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl. i. 790, depends upon his view that the gens was as old as the state; in his opinion it was originally stronger but gradually weakened, whereas the state went through the opposite process; Röm Staatsr. iii. 25. But if, as I have elsewhere pointed out (Pol. Sci. Quart. xxii. 685 ff.), the gens developed from the family during the decline of the kingship and the rise of aristocracy, the theory of a primitive gentile ownership falls to the ground.