eian in origin, regarded the supreme magistracy as the prerogative of birth and the prize of ambition. 3 The patricians con

ition to three sons, Ap. Claudius Pulcher left three daughters, whose birth and beauty gained them advantageous matches and a

irected in war and peace the government after Sulla, owing primacy to birth and wealth, linked by ties of kinship and recipro

de public policy: only a few venerable relics, or recent consuls with birth but no weight. NotesPage=>022 1 The family

interlocking groups of the governing party might assert the claims of birth and talent. There were two young Metelli, Celer a

ar, BC 3, 83, 1): he is described as designate to the consulship from birth (Ad Att. 4, 8 b, 2), already in 70 B.C. princeps

the year before, cf. Ad Q. fratrem 3, 8, 4. 2 Milo was a Papius by birth , adopted by his maternal grandfather T. Annius of

ised. 1 The patrician Cornelii Lentuli were noted more for pride of birth and political caution than for public splendour o

;043 1 Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus (cos. 72) was a plebeian by birth (Cicero, De imp. Cn. Pompei 58), hence probably a

ed that Caesar, avid for splendour, glory and power, ready to use his birth and station to subvert his own class, was an omin

e Roman plebs:3 he could also appeal to the duties which they owed to birth and station. The plebs would not have given prefe

unic city of Gades in Spain. L. Cornelius Balbus was not a citizen by birth he received the franchise for service to Rome in

t or colonial Roman. Balbus, the Gaditane magnate, was not a Roman by birth , but a citizen of an alien community allied to Ro

owed his name to his maternal uncle, a wealthy man (P-W XV, 1947): by birth he was M. Satrius (P-W II A, 190), and is describ

well as military distinction; access lay open to merit as well as to birth ; and the good statesman would not be deserted by

fidence instal a younger son of Pollio, Saloninus, who duly smiled at birth and conveniently perished almost at once. 4 Yet t

tavianus to take refuge with Sex. Pompeius. 3 Livia was about to give birth to another son no obstacle, however, in high poli

iculty of harmonizing the literary evidence about the date of Drusus’ birth , cf. E. Groag, PIR2 C 857. 5 A nephew of Ap. Cl

y in lavish measure; 6 and the contraction of marriage-alliances with birth or wealth was a sign and pledge of political succ

’ departure from Egypt nearly four years earlier, Cleopatra had given birth to twin children, not a matter of any importance

daughter of Antonius. Both parties had the habit of keeping faith. In birth and in repute Ahenobarbus stood next to Antonius

ρєσβєυτάν καὶ ἀντυστράτηγὸν (ILS 9461). He was a Calpurnius Bestia by birth . It is not quite certain that his adoptive parent

heroes and their vocabulary. Livy was moved to grave doubts—was the birth of Caesar a blessing or a curse? 4 Augustus twitt

at. Hence the conspicuous lack of legates of Augustus either noble in birth or consular in rank. Not a single nobilis can be

was of consular standing. 1 The others were praetorian. Nor was high birth in evidence. The family and connexions of one of

a Triumvirate which was not merely indifferent, but even hostile, to birth and breeding. The Senate had swollen inordinately

had brought the rapid rewards of a revolutionary age. Obscurity of birth or provincial origin was no bar. Of the great ple

generation better. Here again, no return to Republican prejudices of birth . In the Principate, sons of freedmen soon occupy

ried a wife from the patrician family of Cornelius Maluginensis. 3 By birth , Seius already possessed powerful connexions hi

t, being restricted to those in possession of the badge of senatorial birth (the latus clavus) and a certain fortune. Notes

and marriage to their peers in other towns, and desperately proud of birth . 1 Of some the town or region is attested; in oth

e and the real working of patronage. Under the Republic nobility of birth , military service, distinction in oratory or law,

Gabinius was a politician as well as a soldier. In fact, nobility of birth prevailed and designated its candidates, often in

oric which he was happy to advertise as proconsul in the clime of its birth . 2 L. Calpurnius Piso acquired more favour as a p

Furius Camillus, but brief in duration and ill- starred. 1 Pride of birth , prejudicial or at least unprofitable while the T

k the form of co-optation or of election by the People, the claims of birth , influence and patronage had always been paramoun

city state was clumsy, wasteful and calamitous. Many able men lacking birth , protection or desperate ambition stood aloof fro

t Rome. Under the Republic the command of an army was the reward of birth , ambition or greed, to be won at the cost of intr

ator. As for the Metelli, the consul of A.D. 7 is a Junius Silanus by birth . 5 See Table V at end. PageBook=>424 L.

a monument in honour of a girl who had produced five children at one birth . 5 For reasons less obvious a centenarian actress

e temple of Apollo and was visited by a snake. On the very day of the birth of his son, the great astrologer Nigidius Figulus

As in Galatia or in the cities of Asia, the aristocracy of land and birth is firmly riveted to the clientela of Caesar Augu

difice witnessed a similar spectacle. Aemilia Lepida, a woman of high birth and abandoned habits, organized a procession of s

ate; and the last consular bearer of the name was a Junius Silanus by birth . Likewise to the Principate of Augustus belongs t

en of a Triumviral consul. 10 PageNotes. 500 1 His wife had given birth to six children, Tacitus, Ann. 3, 33. 2 For the

. Plautius Silvanus Aelianus (ILS 986) is probably an Aelius Lamia by birth , of which house after the consul of A.D. 3 no dir

obiles, the delayed but logical end of Revolution and Empire. Noble birth still brought the consulate as of right, and afte

lanium, like them the son of a Roman knight. 2 But for this defect of birth , Verginius Rufus might have become emperor. 3 Ner

stinction in oratory or law, but more and more for the sole reason of birth . 1 The Sullan oligarchy made its peace with the

etween these extremes. 4 It was not long before the Principate gave birth to its own theory, and so became vulnerable to pr

0; conspiracy of, 298, 494. Aemilius Lepidus, M. (cos. A.D. 6), his birth and eminence, 420, 422, 517; in Illyricum and in

, 430, 432. Aemilius Scaurus, Mam. (cos. suff. under Tiberius), noble birth and vices of, 374; marries Aemilia Lepida, 492 f.

office, 11, 374 ff.; pride of, 68, 360 f., 377, 442 f.; obscurity of birth , 78, 81, 150 f., 350. Bithynia, allotted in 44

159; on duties towards clients, 70; on the res publica, 53; pride of birth , 68; literary interests, 459 f.; Caesar and Cicer