Page:A history and description of Roman political institutions (IA historyanddescri00abbo).pdf/13



1. The Gens. The basis of political organization among the early Romans was the gens or clan. This unit of organization, which in one form or another is common to the Indo-European peoples, retained many of its characteristics and some measure of its social and political importance to a very late period. Cicero describes the gentiles of his day, or the members of a clan, as those who could trace their lineage back to a common ancestor, who could claim that their ancestors had all been freemen, and who were in possession of their full rights. The civil and political rights of the individual came to him as a member of a family belonging to a gens, and, since membership in a particular gens was indicated by the possession of the nomen gentilicium, or clan name, the legal and social importance which attached to the name is readily understood. In fact, in the earliest period, even the right to use the land,