the greater vividness with which the conception of
the community as such was realized in Latium could
not tolerate the idea that a man might simultaneously
belong in the character of a burgess to two communities;
and accordingly, when the newly-chosen burgess did
not intend to surrender his previous franchise, it
attached to the nominal honorary citizenship no further
meaning than that of an obligation to befriend and
protect the guest (-jus hospitii-), such as had always
been recognized as incumbent in reference to foreigners.
But this rigorous retention of barriers against those
that were without was accompanied by an absolute banishment
of all difference of rights among the members included
in the burgess community of Rome. We have already
mentioned that the distinctions existing in the household,
which of course could not be set aside, were at least
ignored in the community; the son who as such was
subject in property to his father might thus, in the
character of a burgess, come to have command over his
father as master. There were no class-privileges:
the fact that the Tities took precedence of the Ramnes,
and both ranked before the Luceres, did not affect
their equality in all legal rights. The burgess
cavalry, which at this period was used for single combat
in front of the line on horseback or even on foot,
and was rather a select or reserve corps than a special
arm of the service, and which accordingly contained
by far the wealthiest, best-armed, and best-trained
men, was naturally held in higher estimation than the
burgess infantry; but this was a distinction purely
-de facto-, and admittance to the cavalry was doubtless
conceded to any patrician. It was simply and
solely the constitutional subdivision of the burgess-body
that gave rise to distinctions recognized by the law;
otherwise the legal equality of all the members of
the community was carried out even in their external
appearance. Dress indeed served to distinguish
the president of the community from its members, the
grown-up man under obligation of military service from
the boy not yet capable of enrolment; but otherwise
the rich and the noble as well as the poor and low-born
were only allowed to appear in public in the like
simple wrapper (-toga-) of white woollen stuff.
This complete equality of rights among the burgesses
had beyond doubt its original basis in the Indo-Germanic
type of constitution; but in the precision with which
it was thus apprehended and embodied it formed one
of the most characteristic and influential peculiarities
of the Latin nation. And in connection with this
we may recall the fact that in Italy we do not meet
with any race of earlier settlers less capable of
culture, that had become subject to the Latin immigrants.(8)
They had no conquered race to deal with, and therefore
no such condition of things as that which gave rise
to the Indian system of caste, to the nobility of Thessaly
and Sparta and perhaps of Hellas generally, and probably
also to the Germanic distinction of ranks.