p and
its festivals, although, of course, they were not capable of the
proper rights or liable to the proper duties of burgesses. This
remark applies still more to the case of the protected dependents
of the community at large. The state thus consisted, like the
household, of persons properly belonging to it and of dependents--of
"burgesses" and of "inmates" or --metoeci--.

The King

As the clans resting upon a family basis were the constituent
elements of the state, so the form of the body-politic was modelled
after the family both generally and in detail. The household was
provided by nature herself with a head in the person of the father
with whom it originated, and with whom it perished. But in the
community of the people, which was designed to be imperishable,
there was no natural master; not at least in that of Rome, which
was composed of free and equal husbandmen and could not boast of a
nobility by the grace of God. Accordingly one from its own ranks
became its "leader" (-rex-) and lord in the household of the Roman
community; as indeed at a later period there were to be found in or
near to his dwelling the always blazing hearth and the well-barred
store-chamber of the community, the Roman Vestas and the Roman
Penates--indications of the visible unity of that supreme household
which included all Rome. The regal office began at once and by
right, when the position had become vacant and the successor had
been designated; but the community did not owe full obedience to
the king until he had convoked the assembly of freemen capable of
bearing arms and had formally challenged its allegiance. Then he
possessed in its entireness that power over the community which
belonged to the house-father in his household; and, like him, he
ruled for life. He held intercourse with the gods of the community,
whom he consulted and appeased (-auspicia publica-), and he nominated
all the priests and priestesses. The agreements which he concluded
in name of the community with foreigners were binding upon the whole
people; although in other instances no member of the community was
bound by an agreement with a non-member. His "command" (-imperium-)
was all-powerful in peace and in war, on which account "messengers"
(-lictores-, from -licere-, to summon) preceded him with axes and
rods on all occasions when he appeared officially. He alone had
the right of publicly addressing the burgesses, and it was he who
kept the k