from the client when his own time of need arose. This relationship had almost religious overtones, and was passed down from generation to generation. While many patrons no doubt helped many plebeians avoid starvation, eviction from their houses, or prosecution in courts of law, the relationship still strengthened the power of the nobles. It shows how powerless the common people were in relation to the nobles, for patrons helped clients at their own pleasure and to meet their own goals. Further, many nobles amassed great numbers of clients because doing so increased their political power. The plebeians felt that with the expulsion of the monarchy, they had exchanged one king for a host of kings.
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 | | The citizens were grumbling that while they were fighting wars abroad for empire and freedom, at home they were enslaved and oppressed by other citizens; the freedom of the common people was safer in war than in peace and among the enemy than among fellow citizens. The outstanding calamity of one man further inflamed the common people's bitterness, already burning hot on its own.
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| | A certain man of advanced age rushed into the forum, bearing the signs of all his misfortunes. His clothing was covered with filth, but fouler still was the condition of his body, pale and racked by disease. What's more, a long unkempt beard and hair made his face look like an animal's. He was nonetheless recognized, despite the change from what he had once been, and the people said that he had once been a centurion [in charge of 100 soldiers and roughly equivalent to a sergeant in the U.S. army]. Pitying him, they talked about his other awards for valor. He himself showed his proof of honorable battlesthe wounds on his chest, a wound for each battle. To their asking why he had deteriorated so, he responded (now a great crowd had congregated, as if an assembly had been called) that while fighting in the Sabine war, he had not only lost his year's crop after the destruction of his farm, but also his cottage had been burned down, all his possessions stolen, and his flocks driven off; on top of that, taxes were levied during those hard times, forcing him to borrow money.
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| | After interest was added to other losses, he finally lost the farm that his ancestors had worked, and then he lost everything else. After that, destruction came to his body like a disease; he was taken by his creditors not to slavery but to a workhouse and to the executioner. Then he showed his back, scarred with recent lashes of the whip. (Livy II.23.2-7)
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