PATRICIAN. The history, in the Roman state, of the hereditary patrician order (patricii, patres, house-fathers, goodmen) who originally constituted the entire populus Romanus has been traced in the article Nobility (vol. xvii. pp. 525-6). With the transference of the imperial capital to Byzantium under Constantine, the title patricius became a personal and not an hereditary distinction; the name was held to denote a fatherly relation to the emperor, and those who bore it stood first among the illustres, receiving such appellations as “magnificentia,” “celsitudo,” “eminentia,” “magnitudo.” High civil and military office was usually conferred on them, and they were frequently sent into the provinces as viceroys. After the overthrow of Romulus Augustulus in the West, Odoacer claimed and, practically at least, received from the emperor Zeno the title of “patricius,” in virtue of which he governed Italy. It was similarly assumed by other barbarian conquerors. In 754 it was conferred by Pope Stephen on Pippin the Short, and it was afterwards borne by Charlemagne. It was as patrician of Rome that the emperor Henry IV. claimed the right to depose Pope Gregory VII. The title was abolished by Pope Eugenius III. in 1145.