“ In no other country did club-life attain such an early perfection as in England. The earliest clubs on the European continent were of a political nature. These in 1848 were repressed in Austria and Germany, and the modern clubs of Berlin and Vienna are mere replicas of their English prototypes. In France, where the term cercle is most usual, the first was Le Club Politique (1782) , and during the Revolution such associations proved important political forces (see Jacobins, Feuillants, Cordeliers) . ”

“ As the Roman empire became gradually impoverished and depopulated, and as the difficulty of defending its frontiers increased, these associations must have been slowly extinguished, and the living and the dead citizen alike ceased to be the object of care and contribution. The sudden invasion of Dacia by barbarians in A.D. 166 was followed by the extinction of one collegium which has left a record of the fact, and probably by many others. The master of the college of Jupiter Cernenius, with the two quaestors and seven witnesses, attest the fact that the college has ceased to exist. ”

“ So we find the cult of deities such as Sabazius, Mater Magna (see Great Mother of the Gods) and Attis, Adonis, Isis, Serapis, Mēn Tyrannos, carried on in Greek states, and especially in seaports like the Peiraeus, Rhodes, Smyrna, without protest, but almost certainly without moral benefit to the worshippers. The famous passage in Demosthenes (de Corona, sect. 259 foll.) shows, however, that the initiation at an early age in the rites of Sabazius did not gain credit for Aeschines in the eyes of the best men. ”

“ We may now return to the associations formed for the maintenance of cults, which were usually called sodalitates, though the word collegium was also used for them, as in the case of the college of the Arval Brothers (q.v.) . Of the ancient Sodales Titii nothing is known until they were revived by Augustus; but it seems probable that when a gens or family charged with the maintenance of a particular cult had died out, its place was supplied by a sodalitas (Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, iii. 134) . The introduction of new cults also led to the institution of new associations ”

“ Almost every interest, rank and profession has its club. Thus there is a Press Club, a Fly-Fishers’ Club, a Gun Club, an Authors’, a Farmers’, a Lawyers’ (the Eldon) and a Bath Club. Of the purely women’s clubs the most important are the Alexandra (1884) , the Empress (1897) , Lyceum (1904) and Ladies’ Army & Navy (1904) ; while the Albemarle and the Sesame have a leading place among clubs for men and women. Of political clubs having no club-house, the best known are the Cobden (Free Trade, 1866) ”

“ But legalized sodalitates are frequent later; the temple of Venus Genetrix, begun by Julius and finished by Augustus, had its collegium (Pliny, N.H. ii. 93) , and sodalitates were instituted for the cult of the deified emperors Augustus, Claudius, &c.
We thus arrive by a second channel at the collegia of the empire. Both the history of the trade gilds and that of the religious collegia or sodalitates conduct us by a course of natural development to that extraordinary system of private association with which the empire was honeycombed. ”

“ Such are the many purely athletic, sports and pastimes clubs, the Jockey Club, the Alpine, chess, yacht and motor clubs. Then there are literary clubs, musical and art clubs, publishing clubs; and the name of “club” has been annexed by a large group of associations which fall between the club proper and mere friendly societies, of a purely periodic and temporary nature, such as slate, goose and Christmas clubs, which are not required to be registered under the Friendly Societies Act. ”

“ But club-life in American cities has grown to enormous proportions; the number of excellent clubs is now legion, and their hospitality has become proverbial. The chief clubs in each city are referred to in the topographical articles. ”

“ But the principle of the trade gild reasserts itself under the Empire, and is found at work in Rome and in every municipal town, attested abundantly by the evidence of inscriptions. Though the right of permitting such associations belonged to the government alone, these trade gilds were recognized by the state as being instituted “ut necessariam operam publicis utilitatibus exhiberent” (Digest, 50. 6. 6) . Every kind of trade and business throughout the Empire seems to have had its collegium, as is shown by the inscriptions in the Corpus from any Roman municipal town ”

“ This may help us to understand the way in which similar associations of an earlier age were instituted.
Roman.—At Rome the principle of private association was recognized very early by the state; sodalitates for religious purposes are mentioned in the XII. Tables (Gaius in Digest, 47. 22. 4) , and collegia opificum, or trade gilds, were believed to have been instituted by Numa, which probably means that they were regulated by the jus divinum as being associated with particular worships. It is difficult to distinguish between the two words collegium and sodalitas ”

“ We are not surprised to find that, in accordance with the foreign character of the cults thus maintained, the members of the associations are rarely citizens by birth, but women, freedmen, foreigners and even slaves. ”

“ The patroni increased in number, and more and more the colleges acquired the habit of depending on their benefactions, while at the same time it would seem that the primary object of burial became subordinate to the claims of the common weal. It may also be asserted with confidence, as of the Greek clubs, that these collegia rarely or never did the work of our benefit clubs, by assisting sick or infirm members; such objects at any rate do not appear in the inscriptions. ”

“ This Phrygian deity was introduced into Attica by a Lycian slave, employed by a Roman in working the mines at Laurium. He founded the cult and the eranos which was to maintain it, and seems also to have drawn up the law regulating its ritual and government. ”

“ These were suppressed by a senatusconsultum in 64 B.C., revived by Clodius six years later, and finally abolished by Julius Caesar, as dangerous to public order. Probably the old trade gilds had been swamped in the vast and growing population of the city, and these, inferior and degraded both in personnel and objects, had taken their place. ”

“ But we have to add to Solon’s list the political ἑταιρίαι which we meet with in Athenian history, which do not seem to have always had a religious object, whatever their origin may have been; and it may be convenient to clear the ground by considering these first. ”