Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/387

 CHAP. VII. THE PLEBS ENTER THE CITY. 381 according to rank, he formed four new tribes, in which the entire population was distributed according to resi- dence. We have seen this reform at Athens, and we know what were its effects; they were the same at Rome. The plebeians, who did not enter the ancient tribes, were admitted into the new ones.' This multi- tude, up to that time a floating mass, a species of no- madic population that had no connection with the city had thenceforth its fixed divisions and its regular or- ganization. The formation of these tribes, in which the two orders were mingled, really marked the entrance of the plebs into the city. Every tribe had a hearth and sacrifices. Servius established Lares in every pub- lic place of the city, in every district of the country. They served as divinities for those who had no rank. The plebeian celebrated the religious festivals of his quarter, and of his burgh (compitalia, paf/analia)^ as the patrician celebrated the sacrifice of his gens and of his cury. The plebeian had a religion. At the same time a great change took place in the sacred ceremony of the lustration. The people were no longer ranged by curies^ to the exclusion of those whom the curies did not admit. All the free inhabit- ants of Rome, all those who formed a part of the new tribes, figured in the sacred act. For the first time all men, without distinction of patrician, or client, or ple- beian, were united. The king walked around this mixed assembly, driving victims before him, and sing- ing solemn hymns. The ceremony finished, all alike found themselves citizens. Before Servius, only two classes of men were dis- tinguished at Rome — the sacerdotal caste of patri- • Dionysius, I. 26.