[358] Dionysius, iv, 1.
[359] Niebuhr says: “The existence of the plebs as acknowledgedly a free and very numerous portion of the nation, may be traced back to the reign of Ancus; but before the time of Servius it was only an aggregate of unconnected parts, not a united regular whole.”—History of Rome, l. c., i, 315.
[360] History of Rome, i, 315.
[361] “That the clients were total strangers to the plebeian commonalty and did not coalesce with it until late, when the bond of servitude had been loosened, partly from the houses of their patrons dying off or sinking into decay, partly from the advance of the whole nation toward freedom, will be proved in the sequel of this history.”—History of Rome, i, 315.
[362] Dionysius, ii, 8.
[363] Plutarch, Vit. Rom., xiii, 16.
[364] Vit. Tiberius, cap. 1.
[365] Hist. of Rome, i, 256, 450.
[366] Smith’s Dic., Articles Gens, Patricii, and Plebs.
[367] Dionysius, ii, 8; Plutarch, Vit. Rom., xiii.