and all Liberti were included in the class Libertini.  Libertinus is another example of a word which we use (libertine), though not in the Roman sense.  But the old Roman relation of Patron and Client was not this.  Originally the heads of distinguished families had a number of retainers or followers who were called their Clients, a word which perhaps originally meant those who were bound to hear and to obey a common head.  It was a tradition that when Atta Claudius, the head of the great Claudian Gens, who were Sabines, was admitted among the Roman Patricians, he brought with him a large body of clients to whom land was given north of the Anio, now the Teverone. (Livius, 2, c. 16; Suetonius, Tiberius, c. 1.) The precise relation of the early clients to their leaders is one of the most difficult questions in Roman History, and much too extensive to be discussed here.  It was the Patron’s duty to protect his clients and to give them his aid and advice in all matters that required it:  the clients owed to the Patron respect and obedience and many duties which are tolerably well ascertained.  Long after the strictness of the old relation had been relaxed, the name continued and some of the duties, as we see in this sentence of Marius, where the Patron claimed to be exempted from giving evidence against his client.  In the last periods of the Republic and under the Empire, Patron was sometimes simply used as Protector, adviser, defender, and Client to express one who looked up to another as his friend and adviser, particularly in all matters where his legal rights were concerned.  Great men under the later Republic sometimes became the Patrons of particular states or cities, and looked after their interests at Rome.  We have adopted the word Client in the sense of one who goes to an attorney or solicitor for his legal advice, but with us the client pays for the advice, and the attorney is not called his patron.  A modern patron is one who patronises, protects, gives his countenance to an individual, or to some association of individuals, but frequently he merely gives his countenance or his name, that being as much as can be asked from him or as much as he will give.

The Clients must be distinguished from the Plebs in the early history of Rome, though there can be no doubt that part of the Plebeian body was gradually formed out of clients.]

[Footnote 61:  Robbery and piracy were in like manner reckoned honourable occupations by the old Greeks (Thucydides, i. 5).  These old robbers made no distinction between robbery and war:  plunder was their object, and labour they hated.  So says Herodotus (v. 6).  A Thracian considered it a disgrace to till the ground; to live by plunder was the mark of a gentleman.  When people can live by plunder, there must be somebody worth plundering.  One object of modern civilisation is to protect him who labours from the aggression of him who does not.]

[Footnote 62:  This fact renders it doubtful if Marius was of such mean birth as it is said.  He married Julia, the sister of C. Julius Caesar.  This Caesar was the father of C. Julius Caesar, the dictator, who was consequently the nephew of Caius Marius.]