PATROL is a detachment of 5 or 6 soldiers, fully armed, sent out, under a sergeant, from the mainguard or picket to traverse the streets of a garrisoned town, etc., and arrest disorderly persons or soldiers out of barrack without proper passes. Prisoners arc taken to the guard-house, and brought before the town-major. In ft besieged fortress, patrols are strong bodies of men employed to promenade the lines of defense, and watch against any assaults on the part of the enemy.
PATRON(Lat. patronns, from pater, father), among the Romans originally signified citizen who had dependents, who were called clients, attached to him. Before the time of the Laws of the Twelve Tables, the most frequent use of the term patronus was in opposition to libertus, these two words being used to signify persons who stood to one another in the relation of master and manumitted slave. The Roman was not denuded of all right in his slave when he freed him; a tie remained somewhat like that of parent and child, and the law recognized important obligations on the part of the libertits toward his patron, the neglect of which involved severe punishment. In some cases the patron could claim a right to the whole or part of the property of his freed man_ The original idea of a patron apart from the manumitter of slaves continued to exist. A Roman citizen, desirous of a protector, might attach himself to is patron, whose client he thenceforward became; and distinguished Romans were sometimes patrons of depend ent states or cities, particularly where they had been the means of bringing them iuto subjection. Thus the Marcelli were patrons of the Sicilians, because Chludius Mareellus had conquered Syracuse and Sicily. The patron•was the guardian of his client's inter
est, public and private; as his legal adviser, he vindicated his rights before the courts of law. The client was bound, on various occasions, to assist the patron with money, as by paying the costs of his suits, contributing to the marriage portions of his daughters, and defraying in part the expenses incurred in the discharge of public functions. Patron and client were under an obligation never to accuse one another; to violate this law amounted to the crime of treason, and any one was at liberty to slay the offender with impunity. One obvious effect of the inStitution of clientela was the introduction of au element of union between classes of citizens who were otherwise continually brought into opposition to each As the patron was in the habit of appearing in support of his clients in courts of justice, the word patronus acquired, in course of time, the sig nification of advocate or legal adviser and defender, the client being the party defended; modern relation between counsel and client.—Patron, in after times, hecamo a common designation of every protector or powerful promoter of the interests of another; and the saints, who were believed to watch over the interests of particular per sons, places, trades, etc., acquired in the middle ages the designation of their patron saints. The saint in whose name a church is founded is considered its patron saint.
The term patron has also been applied to those who endowed or supported churches and convents. See PATooNAGE, ECCLESIASTICAL.