The institutions, which manifestly point to the division of the earliest Roman people into three tribes, attest just as clearly, that these original tribes of the patrician houses were not equal among one another: nay the inequality of the third tribe (of the gentes minores) always continued to exist in some points, probably because there was no legal form of remedying it after the abolition of the kingly dignity.

Probably each tribe had one of the three higher flamens, who always remained patricians: the Quirinalis was added to the Dialis and Martialis, both of whom had existed previously and rankt higher: the relation which the six priestesses of Vesta bore to the tribes, is acknowledged, and has only been applied too artificially to their subdivisions also. Originally there were only two; to these two more were added by the union of the Sabines with the Ramnes, whereby the senate also was increast to two hundred, and two kings reigned: at a much later time the third pair was added from the lower houses. This completion is ascribed to Tarquinius Priscus, in the same way as the admission of the third hundred into the senate from the same gentes; with less consistency by others to Servius Tullius, because the legislation which bears his name, does not affect the patrician institutions.