Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/157

 CHAP. X. THE GENS AT ROME AND IN GREECE. 151 joined in the prayers, and took part in the festivals.* The fire protected him ; the religion of the Lares be- longed to him as well as to his master. This is why the slave was buried in the burial-place of the family.' But by the very act of acquiring this worship, and the right to pray, he lost his liberty. Religion was a chain that held him. He was bound to the family for his whole life and after his death. His master could raise him from his base servitude, and ti'eat him as a free man. But the servant did not on this account quit the family. As he was bound to it by his worship, he could not, without impiety, sep- arate from it. Under the name of freedman, or that oi client, he continued to recognize the authority of the chief or patron, to be under obligations to him. He did not marry without the consent of the master, and his children continued to obey this master. Thei-e was thus formed in the midst of the great family a certain number of small families of clients and subordinates. The Romans attributed the establish- ment of clientship to Romulus, as if an institution of this nature could have been the work of a man. Client- ship is older than Romulus. Besides, it has existed in other countries, in Greece as well as in all Italy. It was not the cities that established and regulated it ; they, on the contrary, as we shall presently see, Aveak- ened and destroyed it by degrees. Clientship is an institution of the domestic law, and existed in families before there were cities. ' Quum dominis, turn famulis reUgio Lamm. Cicero, De Legib., II. 11. Comp. .^Iscli., Agam., 1035-1038. The slave could even perforin a religious act in the name of his master. Cato, De Re Rust., 83.
 * Ferias in famuUs habento, Cicero, De Legib. II. 8; II. 12.