Romulus

For down to the present time foreign peoples call the members of their senate chief men, but the Romans themselves call them conscript fathers, using that name which has the greatest dignity and honour, and awakens the least envy. At first, then, they called them simply fathers, but later, when more had been added to their number, they addressed them as conscript fathers.

By this more imposing title Romulus distinguished the senate from the commonalty, and in other ways, too, he separated the nobles from the multitude, calling the one patrons, that is to say, protectors, and the other clients, that is to say, dependants. At the same time he inspired both classes with an astonishing goodwill towards each other, and one which became the basis of important rights and privileges. For the patrons advised their clients in matters of custom, and represented them in courts of justice, in short, were their counsellors and friends in all things;

while the clients were devoted to their patrons, not only holding them in honour, but actually, in cases of poverty, helping them to dower their daughters and pay their debts. And there was neither any law nor any magistrate that could compel a patron to bear witness against a client, or a client against a patron. But in later times, while all other rights and privileges remained in force, the taking of money by those of high degree from the more lowly was held to be disgraceful and ungenerous. So much, then, on these topics.