Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/317

 CHAP. 11. THE PLBBEIANS. 311 sessed land, that land had no sacred char.'icter; it was profane, ani had no boundaries. But could he hold land in the earliest times? We know that at Rome no one could exercise the right of property if he was not a citizen ; and the plebeian, in the first ages of Rome, was not a citizen. According to the juris- consult, one could not be a proprietor except by qui- ritary right; but the plebeians were not counted at first among the Quirites. At the foundation of Rome tl e ager Momanus was divided up among the tribes, the curies, and the gentes. Now, the plebeians, who belonged to none of these groups, certainly did not share in the division. These plebeians, who had no religion, had not the qualification which enabled a man to make a portion of the soil his own. We know that they long inhabited the Aventine, and built houses there; but it was only after three centuries, and many struggles, that they finally obtained the ownership of this territory. For the plebeians there Avas no law, no justice, since the law was the decision of religion, and the procedure was a body of rites. The client had the benefit of the Roman franchise through his patron ; but for the ple- beian this right did not exist. An ancient historian says formally that the sixth king of Rome was the first to make laws for the plebs, whilst the patricians had ^had theirs for a long time.' It appears even that these laws Avere afterwards withdrawn from the plebs, or that, not being founded upon religion, the patricians refused to pay any attention to them. For we see in the histo- rian that, when tribunes were created, a special law ■was lequired to protect their lives and liberty, and that ' Dionysius, IV. 43.