CLPENT, a person who seeks advice of a lawyer, or commits his cause to the management of one, either in prosecut ing- a. claim, or defending a snit in a court of justice.—Among the Romans, a client meant a citizen who pot himself under the protection of a man of distinc tion and influence, who was accordingly called his patron. This relation was in many respects similar to that of a serf to his feudal lord, but bore a much iniblcr form. It•was the duty of the patron to watch over the interests of his clients and protect them from aggression, and ap peal. for them in lawsuits. Its also fre quently made them grants of land on lease. In return the client was bound to defend his patron, and contribute towards any extraordinary expenses he might be subject to; as the portioning his iLtugh tors, the payment of a fine imposed by the state, ..C.te. lie might not appear as accuser or witness against him in judicial proceedings, a prohibition which was re ciprocal. If he committed any offence against his patron, he was obliged to sub mit to him as his judge; and in ancient times it appears that the power of life and death was held by the latter. On the other hand his security against op pression at the hands of his patron lay in the injunctions and authority of reli gion, which rendered the bond of union inviolably sacred, as that between father and son. The origin of this relation can
not now be traced; but it seems to have existed, with various modifications, throughout Italy and Greece. in Rome it appears at the foundation of the city by Romulus, when every family not in cluded among the patricians was obliged to find itself a patron from their number. The body of clients was afterwards in creased by the institution by which foreign ers, who, as allies of Rome, had a share in its franchise, might choose themselves patrons on their coining to settle in the city. The obligations of clients were he reditary, and could not be shaken off un less through the decay of the family of the patron. This body alone in earlier times furnished artisans and shopkeepers; they had votes in the Comitin Centuriata ; and though generally confounded with the plebeians, were undoubtedly perfect ly distinct from them, as we continually meet in history with instances of their joining the patricians in opposition to the former; and when some of the ple beian houses became powerful, they them solves attached bodies of clients.