Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/363

 CHAP. VI. THE CLIENTS BECOME FREE. 357 strong probability that they were already citizens in the time of king Servius; perhaps they even voted in the comitia curiata from the foundation of Rome. But we cannot conclude from this that they were then entirely enfranchised, since it is possible that the patricians found it for their interest to give their clients political rights without consenting on that account to give them civil rights. It does not appear that the revolution which freed the clients at Kome was accomplished at once, as at Athens. It took place very slowly and imperceptibly, without ever having been consecrated by any formal laws. The bonds of clientship were relaxed little by little, and the client was removed insensibly from the patron. King Servius introduced a great refi)rm to the ad- vantage of the clients; he changeil the organization of the army. Before his reign the army was divided into tribes, curies, and gentes; this was the patrician division; every chief of the gens was at the head of his clients. Servius divided the army into centuries; each had his rank according to his wealth. By this arrangement the client no longer marched by the side of his jiatron ; he no longer recognized him as a chief in battle ; and he became accustomed to independence. This change produced another in the constitution of the comitia. Formerly the assembly was divided into curies and gentes, and the client, if he voted at all, voted under the eye of the master. But the division by cen- turies being established for the comitia as well as for the army, the client no longer found himself in the same division as the patron. The old law, it is true, com- manded liira to vote the same as his patron voted, but how could his vote be known ?