a title given, among the ancient Romans, to the descendants of the hundred, or, as some will have it, of the two hundred, first senators chosen by Romulus; and by him called patres, "fathers." Romulus established this order after the example of the Athenians; who were divided into two classes, viz.: the curule patres, patricius, and plebeianus, populares. Patricians, therefore, were originally the nobility; in opposition to the plebeians. They were the only persons whom Romulus allowed to aspire to the magistracy; and they exercised all the functions of the priesthood till the year of Rome 495. But the cognizance and character of these ancient families being almost lost and extinguished by a long course of years, and frequent changes in the empire, a new kind of patricians were afterwards set on foot, who had no pretensions from birth, but whose title depended entirely on the emperor's favour. This new patriciate, Zozimus tells us, was erected by Constantine, who conferred the quality on his counsellors, not because they were descended from the ancient fathers of the senate, but because they were the fathers of the republic or of the empire. This dignity in time became the highest of the empire. Justinian calls it summam dignitatem. In effect, the patricians seem to have had the precedence of the confulares, and to have taken place before them in the senate; though F. Faber affirms the contrary. What confounds the question is, that the two dignities often met in the same person; because the patriciate was only conferred on those who had gone through the first offices of the empire, or had been consuls. Pope Adrian made Charlemagne take the title of patrician before he assumed the quality of emperor; and other popes have given the title to other kings and princes by reason of its eminence.

PATRICIAN is also a title of honour often conferred on men of the first quality in the time of our Anglo-Saxon kings. See Thane.

PATRICIAN Deities, Patricii Dii, in Mythology, were Janus, Saturn, the Genius, Pluto, Bacchus, the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth.