§177. The Old Clients.--Clientage (_clientēla_) goes back beyond the founding of Rome to the most ancient social institutions of the Italian communities. The _gentēs_ who settled on the hills along the Tiber (§22) had brought with them as a part of their _familiae_ (§21) numerous free retainers, who seem to have farmed their lands, tended their flocks, and done them certain personal services in return for protection against cattle thieves, raiders, and open enemies. These retainers were regarded as inferior members of the _gēns_ to which they had severally attached themselves, had a share in the increase of the flocks and herds (§33, _pecūlia_), and were given the clan name (§47), but they had no right of marriage with persons of the higher class and no voice in the government. They were the original _plēbs_, while the _gentīlēs_ (§22) were the _populus_ of Rome. §178. Rome's policy of expansion soon brought within the city a third element, distinct from both _gentīlēs_ and _clientēs_. Conquered communities, especially those dangerously near, were made to destroy their own strongholds (_oppida_) and move in mass to the city. Those who possessed already the gentile organization were allowed to become a part of the _populus_, or governing body, and these, too, brought their _clientēs_ with them. Those who had no such organization either attached themselves to the _gentēs_ as clients, or preferring personal independence settled here and there, in and about the city, to make a living as best they might. Some were possessed of means as large perhaps as those of the patricians; others were artisans and laborers, hewers of wood and drawers of water; but all alike were without political rights and occupied the lowest position in the new state. Their numbers increased rapidly with the expansion of Roman territory, and they soon outnumbered the patricians with their retainers, with whom, of course, as conquered people they could have no sympathies or social ties. To them also the name of _plēbs_ was given, and the old _plēbs_, the _clientēs_, began to occupy an intermediate position in the state, though politically included with the plebeians. Many of them, owing perhaps to the dying out of ancient patrician families, gradually lost their dependent relation and became identified in interests with the newer element.