the Roman government
that these two great classes existed.

_Civil Organization of Rome_.--The organization of the government of
early Rome rested in a peculiar sense upon the family group. The first
tribes that settled in the territory were governed upon a family basis,
and their land was held by family holdings. No other nation appears to
have perpetuated such a power of the family in the affairs of the
state. The father, as the head of the family, had absolute power over
all; the son never became of age so far as the rights of property are
considered as long as the father lived. The father was priest, king,
and legislator for all in the family group. Parental authority was
arbitrary, and when the head of the family passed away the oldest male
member of the family took his place, and ruled as his father had ruled.

A group of these families constituted a clan, and a group of clans made
a tribe, and three tribes, according to the formula for the formation
of Rome, made a state. Whether this formal process was carried out
exactly remains to be proved, but the families related to one another
by ties of blood were united in distinct groups, which were again
reorganized into larger {253} groups, and the formula at the time of
the organization of the state was that there were 30 cantons formed by
300 clans, and these clans averaged about 10 families each. This is
based upon the number of representatives which afterward formed the
senate, and upon the number of soldiers furnished by the various
families. The state became then an enlarged family, with a king at the
head, whose prerogatives were somewhat limited by his position. There
were also a popular assembly, consisting of all the freeholders of the
state, and the senate, formed by the heads of all the most influential
families, for the government of Rome. These ancient hereditary forms
of government extended with various changes in the progress of Rome.

_The Struggle for Liberty_.--The members of the Roman senate were
chosen from the noble families of Rome, and were elected for life,
which made the senate of Rome a perpetual body. Having no legal
declaration of legislative, judicial, executive, or administrative
authority, it was, nevertheless, the most powerful body of its kind
ever in existence. Representing the power of intellect, and having
within its ranks men of the foremost character and ability of the city,
this aristocracy overpowered and ruled th