A simple succession of living beings in natural descent; theage or period between one succession and an- other. It is not equivalent to degree. 107 N. C. 609. GENS (Lat.). In Roman Law. A union of families, who bore the same name, who were of an ingenuous (free) birth, in- genui, none of whose ancestors had been a slave, and who had suffered no capitis dim- inutio (reduction from a superior to an inferior condition), of which there were three degrees, maxima, media, minima. The first was the reduction of a free man to the condition of a slave, and was undergone by those who refused or neglected to be reg- istered at the census, who had been con- demned to ignominious punishments, who refused to perform military service, or who had been taken prisoners by the enemy, though those of the last class, on recover- ing their liberty, could be reinstated in their rights of citizenship. The second degree consisted in the reduction of a citizen to the condition of an alien (Latinus or pere- grinus), and involved in the case of a Lati- nus, the loss of the right of legal marriage, but not of acquiring property, and in the case of the peregrinus, the loss of both. The third degree consisted in the change of condition of a pater familias into that of a filius familias, either by adoption or by legitimation. Gentiles sunt, qui inter se eodem nomine sunt; qui ab ingenuis oriundi sunt; quorum majorum nemo servitutem servivit: qui capite non sunt minuti. This definition is given by Cicero (Topic 6), after Scævola, the pontifex. But, notwithstanding this high authority, the question as to the organiza- tion of the gens is involved in great obscurity and doubt. The definition of Festus is still more vague and unsatisfactory. He says, "Gentilis dicitur et ex eodem genere ortus, et is qui simili nomine appel- latur, ut ait Cincius: Gentiles mihi sunt, qui meo nomine appellantur." Gens and genus are convert ible terms; and Cicero defines the latter word, "Genus autem est quod sui similes communione quadam, specie autem differentes, duas aut plures complectitur partes." De Oratore, 1, 42. The genus is that which comprehends two or more particulars, similar to one another by having something in com- mon, but differing in species. From this it may fairly be concluded that the gens or race comprises several families, always of ingenuous birth, resem- bling each other by their origin, general name, - nomen, and common sacrifices or sacred rites, - sacra gentilitia (sui similes communione quadam), -but differing from each other by a particular name, cognomen and agnatio (specie autem differ- entes). It would seem, however, from the litigation between the Claudii and Marcellii in relation to the inheritance of the son of a freedman, reported by Cicero, that the deceased, whose succession was in controversy, belonging to the gens Claudia, for the foundation of their claim was the gentile rights,- gente; and the Marcellii (plebeians belonging to the same gens) supported their pretensions on the ground d that that he he was the son of their freedman. This. fact has been thought by some writers to contradict that part of the definition of Scævola and Cicero where they say, quorum majorum nemo servitutem servivit. And Niebuhr, in a note to his history, con- cludes that the definition is erroneous: he says, "The claim of the patrician Claudii is at variance with the definition in the Topics, which excludes the posterity of freedmen from the character of gen- tiles: probably the decision was against the Claudii, and this might be the ground on which Cicero denied the title of gentiles to the descendants of freedmen. I conceive in so doing he must have been mistaken. We know from Cicero himself (de Leg. 11, 22) that no bodies or ashes were allowed to be placed in the common sepulchre unless they belonged to such as shared in the gens and its sacred rites; and several freedmen have been admitted into the sepulchre of the Scipios." But in another place he says, "The division into houses was so essential to the patrician order that the appropriate ancient term to desig- nate that order was a circumlocution. the patrician gentes; but the instance just mentioned shows not consist of patricians alone. The Claudian con- tained the Marcelli, who were plebeians, equal to the Appii in the splendor of the honors they attained to, and incomparably more useful to the common- wealth; such plebeian families must evidently have arisen from marriages of disparagement, contracted before there was any right of intermarriage between the orders. But the Claudian house had also a very large number of insignificant persons who bore its name, such as the M. Claudius who disputed the freedom of Virginia: nay, according to an opinion of earlier times, as the very case in Cicero proves, it contained the freedmen and their descendants. Thus, among the Gaels, the clan of the Campbells was formed by the nobles and their vassals: if we apply the Roman phrase to them, the fo