nterests of brevity and clearness—to quote as much as possible of the ancient evidence, to refer but seldom to modern authoriti

ibute nobilitas to C. Fonteius and L. Licinius Murena, descendants of ancient and famous houses of praetorian rank.) Gelzer’s l

tes like Crassus. But the wealth of knights often outstripped many an ancient senatorial family, giving them a greater power th

ride of their own traditions. They waited in patience to assert their ancient predominance. When the rule of the Etruscan Tar

shed orators, not to mention other houses of repute. 4 The Marcii, in ancient dignity rivals to the patriciate, now stood high

e of character. Cato extolled the virtues that won empire for Rome in ancient days, denounced the undeserving rich, and strove

the Commonwealth. 1 The coalition may summarily be described as four ancient and eminent families, linked closely with one ano

is third consulate. The compact with Metelli and Scipiones recalled ancient history and revealed the political decline of two

blic and notorious. Above all, to Brutus as to Cato, who stood by the ancient ideals, it seemed that Caesar, avid for splendour

e of dynastic plebeian houses like the Metelli, they remembered their ancient glory and strove to recover leadership. Some fa

cks colour beside the formidable Balbus, the leading personage in the ancient Punic city of Gades in Spain. L. Cornelius Balbus

y of Caesar. With the Roman plebs and the legions of Gaul, a group of ancient families, young men of eager talent and far- sigh

hat would not avail to guard these new Italians, whether belonging to ancient foundations of the Republic or to tribal capitals

that municipal family from Faunus and the goddess Vitellia through an ancient and extinct patrician house of the early Republic

for the Flavii a companion of Hercules: but a place, Vespasiae, with ancient monuments of the Vespasii, attested the repute of

int to Etruria and the adjacent areas subject to the influence of its ancient civilization. 2 The earliest consuls bearing thes

etter of Brutus and Cassius). 5 Nepos, Vita Attici 8, 1 ff. 6 The ancient evidence about provinces and their governors in 4

1 Date and circumstances are vague, various and inconsistent in the ancient authorities (Appian, BC 3, 31, 120; Plutarch, Ant

L. Piso ten years earlier. Between Antonius and Cicero there lay no ancient grudge, no deep-seated cause of an inevitable cla

fumes at Aricia. 4 As for Piso, his grandfather did not come from the ancient colony of Placentia at all it was Mediolanium, an

from Etruria. Of these experts the most venerable exclaimed that the ancient monarchy was returning and died upon the spot, of

and power in the towns of Italy was now decided. The Coponii were an ancient family of Tibur:3 the proscription of a Coponius

rtied classes of the municipia, publicly lauded for the profession of ancient virtue, but avid and unscrupulous in their secret

W. Schulze, LE, 531 ff. Münzer, however, argues that he came from the ancient colony of Norba, P-W xvii, 926. Canidius may be t

in arms: it blended with an older feud and took on the colours of an ancient wrong. Political contests at Rome and the civil w

re started a general conflagration. 7 Such was the end of Perusia, an ancient and opulent city of the Etruscans. NotesPage=&g

layed advantage prominent Republicans now returned to Rome, nobles of ancient family or municipal aristocrats. Here were allies

d Maecenas, a nucleus of support already from certain families of the ancient aristocracy and a steadily growing party in Rome

h new men of ability and ambition paired with aristocrats of the most ancient families. Many minor partisans served him well,

The name of Statilius recalled, and his family may have continued, an ancient line of the aristocracy of Lucania. 4 These were

alla, Ap. Pulcher and Lepidus were not merely noble but of the most ancient nobility, the patrician; which did not in any way

r in war, to urge that many of the upstarts derived their origin from ancient families among the aristocracies of the kindred p

man historiography for ever after. Sallustius wrote of the decay of ancient virtue and the ruin of the Roman People with all

onfiscated, the manner and agents of its recovery, as retailed by the ancient Lives and scholiasts with more confidence than co

gins of the Roman People, august and sanctioned by divine providence; ancient legends could be employed to advertise in literat

d lent help to Gabinius and to Caesar, governed in Judaea, though the ancient Hasmonean house, now decadent, retained title and

my, the Roman leader declared war with all the traditional pomp of an ancient rite. With Antonius he had NotesPage=>291

4 CIL 12, p. 50 and p. 77. 5 Res Gestae 13. At the same time the ancient ceremony of the Augurium Salutis was revived (Dio

efeating the Bastarnae, earned a triumph but claimed more, namely the ancient honour of the spolia opima, for he had slain the

erence to the victories or to the power of Augustus. His attention to ancient monuments is described as ‘sacrati provida cura d

me, he advocated the existing order, reformed a little by a return to ancient practices, but not changed, namely the firm conco

ef footnote (Der Glaube der Hellenen 11, 428 n.). 3 Scipio held the ancient constitution to be far the best (De re publica 1,

ions and Philippi were barely twenty years distant. The corruption of ancient virtue and the decline of ancient patriotism had

ty years distant. The corruption of ancient virtue and the decline of ancient patriotism had brought low a great people. Ruin h

ough not the blood, of M. Livius Drusus as well. Like other Romans of ancient aristocratic stock, Tiberius could rise above cla

ored rule of law. The perverse ingenuity and positive ignorance of an ancient scholiast twisted these words, of natural and eas

othills of the Alps down to Apulia, Lucania and Bruttium. Not only do ancient cities of Latium long decayed, like Lanuvium, pro

on and profit, elicited by patronage, bearing the garb and pretext of ancient virtue and manly independence, but all too often

recent upstarts, enriched by murder and rapine. Others came from the ancient aristocracy of the land, dynastic and priestly fa

rial history. M. Salvius Otho, the son of a Roman knight, sprung from ancient and dynastic stock in Etruscan Ferentum, became a

the colony of Cales. P. Sulpicius Quirinius had no connexion with the ancient and patrician house of the Sulpicii he belonged t

63 Another Samnite was M. Papius Mutilus (cos. suff. A.D. 9), of an ancient dynastic house. Two other consuls in this period,

politics (the perennial quies) often proved too strong. There was an ancient and reputable family among the Paeligni, the Ovid

Caesar and of Augustus could be supported by the venerable weight of ancient tradition. To promote novi homines was patently n

faction, the new Caesarian party comprised diverse elements, the most ancient patrician houses and the most recent of careerist

an houses and sought, like Sulla and Caesar before him, to revive the ancient nobility, patrician or plebeian. Valerii, Claudii

which apparently recalls an extinct and otherwise unknown village of ancient Latium. Compare the name of Livia Medullina, daug

him: he was contending against Ahenobarbus. 2 Augustus’ revival of ancient colleges that had lapsed for centuries was not me

law of 30 B.C.8 Among the partisans thus honoured were descendants of ancient plebeian houses, such as the renegade M. Junius S

t for another purpose, the solemn and ostensible restoration of their ancient dignity. XXVI. THE GOVERNMENT PageBook=>38

ed the whole of Bosnia and the Save valley down to Belgrade (which no ancient source asserts) and that the operations of Tiberi

this dating will fit the military situation and the condition of the ancient sources for the period. 2 Cassiodorus, Chron. m

ents of the various boards were commonly men of consular standing. An ancient authority states a reason for these innovations t

onsuls becomes regular. On the Fasti now prevail the descendants of ancient houses, glorious in the history of the Roman Repu

uspected, bearing heavily on the Julii who supplanted her son. But no ancient testimony makes this easy guess and incriminates

nd Tiberius, mostly with interlocking matrimonial ties, houses of the ancient nobility like the Calpurnii and the numerous bran

Blaesus, the uncle of Seianus, Dalmatia by P. Cornelius Dolabella, of ancient nobility. 5 The competent and sturdy novus homo C

‘antiquus’; and what Rome now required was men like those of old, and ancient virtue. As the poet had put it long ago, moribu

ined the Roman People. Conquest, wealth and alien ideas corrupted the ancient ideals of duty, piety, chastity and frugality. 4

of the State a measure quite superfluous so long as Rome remained her ancient self. In the aristocracy of the last age of the R

l strength and corporate feeling in the Roman youth, Augustus revived ancient military exercises, like the Lusus Troiae. 3 Pa

than no marriage. The Roman People was to contemplate and imitate the ancient ideals, personified in their betters: but it was

Empire, engendered a feeling of guilt it all came from neglect of the ancient gods. The evil went back much farther than Caesar

replenished the existing priestly colleges, calling again to life the ancient guild of the Arval Brethren: which meant enhanced

to the gods, Augustus’ most urgent care was to honour the generals of ancient days, the builders of empire. 1 He caused their s

had discarded without repining the rugged ancestral virtues. But the ancient piety and frugality, respect for the family and l

ation and hypocrisy, if ever a statesman was. But his devotion to the ancient ideal of the family and even to the ancient worsh

. But his devotion to the ancient ideal of the family and even to the ancient worship of the gods appears to be deep-rooted and

ncipate of Augustus did not merely idealize consul and citizen of the ancient peasant Republic, thus adding a sublime crown to

lass, the rule of wealth was conveniently masked as a sovran blend of ancient Roman virtue and Hellenic culture. Under the Pr

ntiquarian it could be employed, like poetry, to honour the memory of ancient valour, revive the pride of the nation and educat

e so many parts of Italy, had no history of its own, with memories of ancient independence from Rome or recent hostility. As

imachus than was contemporary history. Propertius was able to recount ancient legends and religious observances with sympathy a

Likewise to the Principate of Augustus belongs the last consul of the ancient patrician house of the Scipiones. Their name and

y died out before long. The Claudii Marcelli and the Marcii Philippi, ancient plebeian houses, were the first to go. 1 The line

nd an impoverished consul in the reign of Nero. 5 Such was the end of ancient patrician houses that recalled the earliest glori

ed the merits of L. Volusius Saturninus (cos. 12 B.C.,) himself of an ancient and respectable family that had not risen above t

The Roman People grieved at the decline in power and splendour of the ancient families whose names embodied the history of Repu

iae Cicero tali exitu pensavit. ’ PageBook=>516 The admirer of ancient eloquence could not have the advantage both ways,

3; Sertorius, 129; Triumviral and Augustan novi homines, 199 f., 363; ancient families of Etruria, 82 f.; propertied classes, 8