Abstract
The paper deals with the transitio ad plebem (i.e. a transfer of a person having originally patrician rank to another social group - the plebeians) using the most well-known example of the transitio ad plebem of Publius Clodius Pulcher in 60 BC. General aspects regarding the reason of the transfer to the plebs are described, as well as the personality of Clodius, as this information provides the necessary introduction to the main topic of this paper - the form of the transitio ad plebem.
Because of the non-sufficient evidence on the matter, the specification of the form is not an easy task. The testimony about Clodius' transitio ad plebem, though the richest we have, does not throw much light on what was the nature of the analysed institution.
Many completely different opinions were provided since the 19th century, all of them based on the evidence of the same ancient sources - Cicero's letters to Atticus, Historiae Romanae of Cassius Dio, and brief mentions about the topics in the texts of Plutarchos, Velleius Paterculus and Suetonius. There are two main theories dealing with the transitio ad plebem.
The first suggests that this institution is the same as the adrogatio (a kind of an adoption), the second, on the contrary, asserts the form of the transfer to plebs have to be a different institution from the adrogation. The paper summarises the opinions and the pros and cons of both of them.
The author of the paper takes the view of the first group, i.e. the transitio ad plebem is similar to the adrogatio. However, the procedure of adrogation may probably be modified for the special purposes of the transfer to the plebs, particularly as regards the impacts on the name and private rites (sacra privata) of the transferred person.