Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/143

 CHAP. X. THE GENS AT ROME AND IN GREECE. 137 the members of his gens; this marks the close relation which the law established between a man and the body of which he formed a part. For a man to plead or bear witness against one of his own gens was an act contrary to religion. A certain Claudius, a man of some rank, was a personal enemy of Appius Claudius the Decemvir; yet when the latter was placed on trial,, and was menaced with death, this Claudius appeared in his defence, and implored the people in his favor, but not without giving them notice that he took this step " not on account of any affection Avhich he bore the accused, but as a duty." If a member of a gens could not accuse another member before a tribunal of the city, this was because there was a tribunal in the gens itself. Each gens had its chief, who was at the same time its judge, its priest,. and its military commander.' Every one knows that when the Sabine family of the Claudii established itself at Rome, the three thousand persons who composed it obeyed a single chief. Later, when the Fabii took upon themselves the whole war against the Veientes,. we see that this gens had its chief, wlio spoke in its name before the senate, and who led it against the enemy.* In Greece, too, each gens had its chief; the inscrip- tions confirm this, and they show us that this chief generally bore the title of archon.^ Finally, in Rome,, as in Greece, the gens had its assemblies ; it passed laws which its members were bound to obey, and which the city itself respected.* ' Dion. Ilalic, II. 7. '^ Ibid., IX. 5. ^ Boeckh, Corp. Inscrip., S97, .309. Ross, Demi Attici, 24. 24.
 * Livy, VI. 20. Suetonius, Tiber., 1. Ross, Demi Atlici,