PATRICIANS (Peirce, Patricii, in Latin) was the appellation of the members of the original houses or gentee, of which the Roman populus, the ruling power in the community, was at first composed, and of their descendants, either by blood or adoption. They were origin ally divided into three tribes, the Ramnes, Titles, and Luceres; each tribe into ten curia, and each curia into ten decurias, which Niebuhr has identified with the gene or horse. The Lucores were admitted later to the rank, and were styled gentea minores, in opposition to the other two tribes, styled majorea. Each house became subdivided into several familitc, which were distinguished by a surname, in addition to the name of the germ, which was common to all, like that of the Scotch clan. Thus the gens Cornelia comprised the families of the Scipiones, the Lentuli, the Sulke, &c. The families composing a gens were not necessarily related by consanguinity, for individuals might be adopted into a gene, and under the early Roman kings such admissions were frequent. The definition of a gens by Scaevula (Cic., Top.,' c. 6) is, that the members bore a common name, were descended from freemen, without any stain of slavery among their ancestors, and had never incurred any legal disability ; they had common sacred rites, or sacrifices appointed for stated days and places. When a family became extinct by default of heirs in the male line, its property reverted to the gene of which it formed a part. Gentile and patrician were therefore synonymous. Freedmen and their descendants belonged to the gene of which they bore the name, but they had not the rights of the gene, that is to say, the gentile rights. Natives of the confederate towns of Latium coming to settle at Rome attached themselves to some gentile family, the head of which was styled their patron, and they were styled his clients. [WENT.] The members of the senate, the consuls, and the pontifices were, in the first ages of the republic, chosen exclusively from among the patricians, until the year 865 La., when Licinius carried his rogations, by which the plebeians were admitted to the consulship, as well as to the custody of the Sibylline or sacred books. [Lictsius STOLO, in
Moo. Dtv.] When the plebeians became eligible to all the offices of the state, a new nobility wee formed, consisting of those who had filled the offices of consul, prxtor, or curule tedile, and this nobility was transmitted to their posterity with the " Jus imaginum," or the right of setting up in their houses the images of their ancestors. Still a distinction in opinion continued to prevail in favour of the patricians, or older nobi lity, as dietinguished from the plebeian families.
When Constantine transferred the seat of the empire to his new city, he established there a new senate and a new patrician order, the mem bers of which were appointed by the emperor. Their privileges con Dieted in being freed from certain taxes and jurisdictions, and wearing the chlamye and calceus. After the fall of the Western Empire, the officers sent by the Byzantine emperors to administer the provinces of Italy subject to them, were chosen from among the patricians of Constantinople Thus we Foul in the history of the dark ages, of the "patrician of Rome," meaning the governor or representative of the };astern emperor in that city, and the title was afterwards resumed by Charlemagne and his successors.
At Venice the title of patrician was given to the members of the great council, or supreme legislature, and their descendants, and their name/ were registered in the golden book. After the decree of February, 1297, called " La serrate del maggior cousiglio,' no new member was Introduced Into the council, but all the descendants of those who had once sat In the great council, on arriving at twenty five years of age, were by right members of the sovereign assembly, and patricians of Venice. " Patrizio Veneto" was a title of nobility, considered equal to that of any feudal noble not of a sovereign house.
In other parts of Italy, such as Genoa and Rome, the word patrician was and is still used in common language to denote a member of the hereditary nobility Independently of any feudal title.