The knights, when required by the necessities of war, and that happened almost yearly, were all bound to take up arms. Each, according to his birth and fortune, was accompanied by a greater or less number of attendants or clients. Those who were called _ambacti_[130] performed in war the part of esquires.[131] In Aquitaine, these followers were named _soldures_; they shared the good as well as the evil fortune of the chief to whom they were attached, and, when he died, not one of them would survive him. Their number was considerable: we shall see a king of the Sotiates possess no less than six hundred of them.[132]
The states were governed either by an assembly, which the Romans called a senate, or by a supreme magistrate, annual or for life, bearing the title of king,[133] prince,[134] or _vergobret_.[135]
The different tribes formed alliances among themselves, either permanent or occasional; the permanent alliances were founded, some on a community of territorial interests,[136] others on affinities of races,[137] or on treaties,[138] or, lastly, on the right of patronage.[139] The occasional alliances were the results of the necessity of union against a common danger.[140]
In Gaul, not only each state and each tribe (_pagus_), but even each family, was divided into two parties (_factiones_); at the head of these parties were chiefs, taken from among the most considerable and influential of the knights. Cæsar calls them _principes_.[141] All those who accepted their supremacy became their clients; and, although the _principes_ did not exercise a regular magistracy, their authority was very extensive. This organisation had existed from a remote antiquity; its object was to offer to each man of the people a protection against the great, since each was thus placed under the patronage of a chief, whose duty it was to take his cause in hand, and who would have lost all credit if he had allowed one of his clients to be oppressed.[142] We see in the "Commentaries" that this class of the _principes_ enjoyed very great influence. On their decisions depended all important resolutions;[143] and their meeting formed the assembly of the whole of Gaul (_concilium totius Galliæ_).[144] In it everything was decided by majority of votes.[145]