§21. Other Meanings of Familia.--The word _familia_ was also very commonly used in a slightly wider sense to include in addition to the persons named above (§17) all the slaves and clients and all the property real and personal belonging to the _pater familiās_, or acquired and used by the persons under his _potestās_. The word was also used of the slaves alone, and rarely of the property alone. In a still wider and more important sense the word was applied to a larger group of related persons, the _gēns_, consisting of all the "households" (_familiae_ in the sense of §17) who derived their descent through males from a common ancestor. This remote ancestor, could his life have lasted through all the intervening centuries, would have been the _pater familiās_ of all the persons included in the _gēns_, and all would have been subject to his _potestās_. Membership in the _gēns_ was proved by the possession of the _nōmen_, the second of the three names that every citizen of the Republic regularly had (§38). §22. Theoretically this _gēns_ had been in prehistoric times one of the _familiae_, "households," whose union for political purposes had formed the state. Theoretically its _pater familiās_ had been one of the Heads of Houses who in the days of the Kings had formed the _patrēs_, or assembly of old men (_senātus_). The splitting up of this prehistoric household in the manner explained in §19, a process repeated generation after generation, was believed to account for the numerous _familiae_ who claimed connection with the great _gentēs_ in later times. The _gēns_ had an organization of which little is known. It passed resolutions binding upon its members; it furnished guardians for minor children, and curators for the insane and for spendthrifts. When a member died without leaving natural heirs, it succeeded to such property as he did not dispose of by will and administered it for the common good of all its members. These members were called _gentīlēs_, were bound to take part in the religious services of the _gēns_ (_sacra gentīlīcia_), had a claim to the common property, and might if they chose be laid to rest in the common burial ground. Finally, the word _familia_ was often applied to certain branches of a _gēns_ whose members had the same _cognōmen_ (§48), the last of the three names mentioned in §21. For this use of _familia_ a more accurate word is _stirps_.