The _populus_ at this stage, then, is not "the people" in the modern sense; it is the aggregate of the privileged _curiæ_, and does not include the plebs,[20] which at this stage is not even part of the army. But a separate quasi-plebeian class, the _clientes_ of the patricians, are in a state of special dependence upon the latter, and in a subordinate fashion share their privileges. The _clientes_ have very much the air of being primarily the servile or inferior part of the early clan or _gens_, as distinct from its "gentlemen." Cp. Burton, _Hist. of Scotland_, viii, 524-25, as to the lower and the higher (duniewassal) orders in the Scottish Highland clans. "In the old life of the _pagus_ and the _gens_ the weaker sought the protection of the stronger by a willing vassalage" (Greenidge, _Roman Public Life_, p. 6). The _clientes_ are the nominal as distinct from the real "family" of the chief or _patronus_. M. Delaunay (_Les Institutions de l'ancienne Rome_, as cited, i, 27) thinks with Mommsen (so also Dupond, pp. 20-21) that they were mainly freedmen, but gives no evidence. As to the meaning and etymology of the word (_clientes_ from _cluere_ or _cliere_, "to listen" or "obey"), cp. Newman, _Regal Rome_, p. 49; Ortolan, p. 29; Mommsen, _Römisches Staatsrecht_, III, i, 1887, p. 63. The theory that the plebeians were all _clientes_ (Ortolan, pp. 25, 27) seems untenable, though Mommsen (_Staatsrecht_, III, i, 63) pronounces that "all non-patricians were clients"; and Meyer (ii, 521) appears to acquiesce. Only in theory can the mass of the plebs have been clients at any time. Cp. Fustel de Coulanges, pp. 277-78. The _clientes_, it seems clear, were as such admitted to the _comitia_, whereas the plebs were not. See the citations of Fustel de Coulanges from Livy, ii, 56-64; also iii, 14 (Dupond, p. 22, doubts the fact). On any view, the _clientela_ rapidly dwindled, passing into the plebs (cp. Dupond, p. 23; Livy, vi, 18). As to its early status see Fustel de Coulanges, p. 273 _sq._ Ortolan, after representing all plebeians as clients, speaks (p. 31) of plebeians belonging to no gens (so Aulus Gellius, x, 20).