IV. EARLY ROMAN SOCIETY *The Populus Romanus.* The oldest name of the Romans was _Quirites_, a name which long survived in official phraseology, but which was superseded by the name _Romani_, derived from that of the city itself. The whole body of those who were eligible to render military service, to participate in the public religious rites and to attend the meetings of the popular assembly, with their families, constituted the Roman state—the _populus Romanus_. *Patricians and Plebeians.* At the close of the regal period the _populus Romanus_ comprised two distinct social and political classes. These were the Patricians and the Plebeians. A very considerable element of the latter class was formed by the Clients. These class distinctions had grown up gradually under the economic and social influences of the early state; and, in antiquity, were not confined to Rome but appeared in many of the Greek communities also at a similar stage of their development. The Patricians were the aristocracy. Their influence rested upon their wealth as great landholders, their superiority in military equipment and training, their clan organization, and the support of their clients. Their position in the community assured to them political control, and they had early monopolized the right to sit in the Senate. The members of the Senate were called collectively _patres_, whence the name _patricii_ (patricians) was given to all the members of their class. The patricians formed a group of many _gentes_, or clans, each an association of households (_familiae_) who claimed descent from a common ancestor. Each member of a _gens_ bore the gentile name and had a right to participate in its religious practices (_sacra_).