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 PATRAS PATRICIANS 167 of Athens, capital of the nomarchy of Achaia and Elis; pop. in 1871, 19,641. It is situated partly on a spur of Mt. Voidhia, on which stood the ancient town, but principally on the level plain below it. The streets are broad and at right angles ; the houses mostly of one story on account of earthquakes. There is a castle on the site of the ancient acropolis. Patras is the principal seat of the foreign trade in the Morea. For the protection of the har- bor a mole has been constructed. The ancient city was founded by the lonians, from whom it was wrested by the Achasans under Patreus, from whom the city received its name. During the Peloponnesian war it alone of the Achaean towns embraced the side of the Athenians. In 419 B. C. Alcibiades persuaded the inhabitants to join the city and port by a long wall. It was a member of the Achaean league, and during the war between the Achaeans and Romans it was reduced to insignificance. Augustus select- Patras. ed it as one of the two Roman colonies estab- lished on the W. coast of Greece. It was de- stroyed by an earthquake in the 6th century ; subsequently it was a dukedom of the Byzantine empire; was sold to the Venetians in 1408 ; and was taken by the Turks in 1446. It was after- ward taken and retaken several times by the Turks and Venetians. In 1716 it was captured by the Turks, in whose hands it remained until the Greek revolution. It was the first city to raise the standard of independence Feb. 12, 1821, and in the following April it was burned by the Turks. It was recovered by the Greeks, but during the war the castle was held by a Turkish garrison, which in 1828 capitulated to a French force. Since the revolution the pro- gress of Patras has been very rapid, and its manufactures and trade have greatly increased. The gulf of Patras lies between ^Etolia and the N". V. coast of the Morea and between the. gulf of Lepanto on the east and the Ionian sea on the west. Its length is 22 m., its greatest breadth 14 m. Its navigation is difficult, and during the winter months sometimes dangerous. PATRIARCH (Gr. irarpt&pxf)^ chief of a race), a title applied to the fathers or heads of gener- ations mentioned by the sacred writers from Adam to Jacob. After the destruction of Je- rusalem it was the title of the chief religious rulers of the Jews in Asia; and in early Chris- tian times it became the designation of the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. Certain other bishops were likewise termed patriarchs in course of time, especially those of newly converted na- tions. In modern times patriarchs have ju- risdiction over all the bishops and metropoli- tans or archbishops of their patriarchates, but their authority extends little beyond the right of convoking councils and exercising a general watchfulness over the conduct of their subor- dinate prelates. The patriarchs at present in communion with the see of Rome are those of Constantinople, Al- exandria, Antioch, Je- rusalem, the East In- dies, Venice, and Lis- bon, besides those of the Melchites, Maron- ites, and Syrians at Antioch, Armenians in Cilicia, and Nestorians (Chaldeans) nominally at Babylon. In the or- thodox Greek church the title of patriarch is attached to the sees of Constantinople, Alex- andria, Antioch, and Jerusalem ; and various Christian sects of the East have patriarchs. PATRICIANS (Lat. pa- triciiy from pater, a father), the members and descendants, by blood or adoption, of the original houses of which the populus Roma- nus was wholly composed until the establish- ment of the plebeian order. They were at first divided into the tribes of Ramnenses, Ti- tienses, and Luceres or Lucerenses, each tribe consisting of 10 curia, and each curia of 10 gentes, or in regard to representation and war of 10 decuricB. The gens, all the members of which bore the same gentile name, sent its leader to the senate. Originally the two tribes of Ramnenses and Titienses enjoyed exclusive political privileges, but the Etruscan tribe of Luceres was admitted to the same rights by Tarquinius Priscus, and the number of senators, which before had been 200, was in consequence increased to 300. To distinguish the old sen- ators from the new, the former were called patres majorum gentium, and the latter patres minorum gentium. At this period all the pop- ulation who were not patricians were clients