Page:Historical introduction to the private law of Rome (IA historicalintrod00muiriala).pdf/40

10 clients, is usually associated with the overthrow of Alba; the idea being that those of its population who were not of sufficient distinction to be admitted into the ranks of the patriciate, and yet were too independent to brook submission to a private patron, put themselves under the direct protection of the sovereign, and thus, as Cicero says,—though he no doubt meant the words only in a popular sense,—became royal clients. Their number is said to have been largely augmented in the ensuing reign by the conquest of many Latin towns that had broken the treaty made with them after the fall of Alba, and the removal of their inhabitants to Rome. It is very doubtful, however, whether it be possible to condescend upon any particular settlement as the origin of the plebs. It seems more consistent with history to regard them as a heterogeneous mass of non-gentile freemen, small probably in numbers at first, but augmenting with ever-greater rapidity, who had of choice or compulsion made Rome their domicile, but declined to subject themselves to a patron. Some may have been on the spot when Rome was founded, others were voluntary immigrants in pursuit of trade; some may have been refugees, exiles from earlier homes because of their misdeeds;

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