these the most remarkable were, the succession to the
property of every member who died without kin and intestate, and the
obligation imposed on all to assist their indigent fellows under any
extraordinary burthen.[2] 4. The head of each gens was regarded as a
kind of father, and possessed a paternal authority over the members;
the chieftancy was both elective and hereditary;[3] that is, the
individual was always selected from some particular family.

5. Besides the members of the gens, there were attached to it a number
of dependents called clients, who owed submission to the chief as
their patron, and received from him assistance and protection. The
clients were generally foreigners who came to settle at Rome, and not
possessing municipal rights, were forced to appear in the courts of
law, &c. by proxy. In process of time this relation assumed a feudal
form, and the clients were bound to the same duties as vassals[4] in
the middle ages.

6. The chiefs of the gentes composed the senate, and were called
"fathers," (patres.) In the time of Romulus, the senate at first
consisted only of one hundred members, who of course represented the
Latin tribe Ramne'nses; the number was doubled after the union with
the Sabines, and the new members were chosen from the Titienses. The
Tuscan tribe of the Lu'ceres remained unrepresented in the senate
until the reign of the first Tarquin, when the legislative body
received another hundred[5] from that tribe. Tarquin the elder was,
according to history, a Tuscan Iticumo, and seems to have owed his
elevation principally to the efforts of his compatriots settled at
Rome. It is to this event we must refer, in a great degree, the number
of Tuscan ceremonies which are to be found in the political
institutions of the Romans.

7. The gentes were not only represented in the senate, but met also in
a public assembly called "comitia curiata." In these comitia the kings
were elected and invested with royal authority. After the complete
change of the constitution in later ages, the "comitia curiata"[6]
rarely assembled, and their power was limited to religious matters;
but during the earlier period of the republic, they claimed and
frequently exercised the supreme powers of the state, and were named
emphatically, The People.

8. The power and prerogatives of the kings at Rome, were similar to
those of the Grecian sovereigns in the heroic ages. The monarch was
general of the army, a high priest,[