ority at Rome had ever enjoyed it. The survivors of the old governing class , shattered in spirit, gave up the contest. Compen

er had to devise a formula, revealing to the members of the governing class how they could co-operate in maintaining the new

preoccupied with the fall of Libertas and the defeat of the governing class . Though symbolized for all time in the Battle of

oman history, Republican or Imperial, is the history of the governing class . The marshals, diplomats, and financiers of the R

of the Caesarian party, but also the vicissitudes of the whole ruling class over a long period of years, in the attempt to co

y Rome, not Italy. 1 In the Revolution the power of the old governing class was broken, its composition transformed. Italy an

f the best men; for the ambitions of the dynasts provoked war between class and class. Naked power prevailed. 4 The anger o

men; for the ambitions of the dynasts provoked war between class and class . Naked power prevailed. 4 The anger of Heaven a

beyond all relation to their number; and the nobiles, though a wider class , formed yet a distinct minority in the Senate.

action. The dynast required allies and supporters, not from his own class only. The sovran people of a free republic confer

n to the Senate. The Equites belonged, it is true, to the same social class as the great bulk of the senators: the contrast l

of civic virtue, no share in the splendour and pride of the governing class . For that surrender they were scorned by senators

d courage to make the reforms that might save and justify the rule of class and privilege. The ten years’ war in Italy not me

nce or delusion. Upright and austere, a ferocious defender of his own class , a hard drinker and an astute politician, the aut

ontracted ties of friendship with a number of great landowners of the class and rank of M. Terentius Varro from Reate, in the

Caesar had become a rival political leader in his own right. In every class of society the defeated and dispossessed, eager f

less. Without the sincere and patriotic co-operation of the governing class , the attempt would be all in vain, the mere creat

d with public and ostentatious clemency. They were members of his own class : he had not wished to make war upon them or to ex

s the anticipator of Caracalla, a king and a god incarnate, levelling class and nation, ruling a subject, united and uniform

d theoretical defence of certain traditional virtues of the governing class in an aristocratic and republican state. Hellenic

honesty and loyalty. Privilege and station imposed duties, to family, class and equals in the first place, but also towards c

n honour of the Republican who died true to his principles and to his class . Then he strengthened the family tie and obligati

lory and power, ready to use his birth and station to subvert his own class , was an ominous type, the monarchic aristocrat, r

e army and the provinces, the depression of the traditional governing class . Caesar’s autocracy appeared to be much more th

ut across families: as this was a contest neither of principle nor of class , the presence of members of the same noble house

compared to that of the family. It was often stronger. Whatever their class in society, men went with a leader or a friend, t

der he had established. Pompeius’ repute was evil enough with his own class ; when he formed an alliance with the Metelli he p

t had not reached the consulate and sons of Roman knights: the latter class does not show a conspicuously high proportion. 5

revive and re-establish their peers. 5 The patriciate was a tenacious class ; though depressed by poverty, by incapacity to ad

. Fides, libertas and amicitia were qualities valued by the governing class , by Caesar as by Brutus. Caesar was a patrician

Gaul and in the Civil Wars. 1 There were other representatives of his class , excellent men. Many knights were to be found i

imipilaris (Orosius 5, 21, 3). But there may have been others. On the class from which Sulla’s new senators were drawn, cf. H

iends Troucillus, Trogus and Gallus were not the only members of this class , which, lacking full documentation, is sometimes

irtute, existimatione, nobilitate princeps’ (Pro Cluentio II), On the class of domi nobiles, cf. Pro Cluentio 23; 109; 196; S

rum invidia pelli armis coeptum. ’ PageBook=>084 The governing class at Rome had not always disdained the aristocracie

gnate from Spain or Narbonensis. They represented, not regions, but a class in society and a party in politics. But even now

erly, and even disgraceful, is evident and admitted. He belonged to a class of Roman nobles by no means uncommon under Republ

e Senate and reinforce the argument for firm concord in the governing class and a firm control of affairs by the consuls. T

ding for Brutus, a Roman noble embodying the virtues of his order and class , and bound to him by ties of personal friendship.

the friends of settled government. Octavianus did not belong to that class . The rhetoric of the ancients and the parliamen

ankers was private and personal, not the considered policy of a whole class . Octavianus needed the Senate as well. He hoped t

l, improper to adduce any standards other than those of a man’s time, class and station. Yet it was precisely in the eyes of

irtues above their station, even the magnitudo animi of the governing class . 4 Municipal origin becomes not merely respectabl

and wealth. The libertas of the Roman aristocrat meant the rule of a class and the perpetuation of privilege. Yet, even so

eneous, and the Dictator stood above parties. He did not champion one class against another. If he had begun a revolution, hi

. Their own partisans, astute neutrals and freedmen of the commercial class got value for their money in the solid form of la

ar’s ostensible political heirs and the declared enemies of their own class . The older men were dead, dishonoured or torpid:

istocrat and a Roman patriot now had to sever the ties of friendship, class and country, and bring himself to inflict the pen

he men who fell at Philippi fought for a principle, a tradition and a class narrow, imperfect and outworn, but for all that t

body of hostile cavalry. 3 His brother had tried to defend the landed class in Italy from the soldiery; and Antonius himself

oy Rome. Her own strength and her own sons laid her low. 1 The war of class against class, the dominance of riot and violence

wn strength and her own sons laid her low. 1 The war of class against class , the dominance of riot and violence, the dissolut

ollowing a revolutionary leader or taking up an ally not of their own class , from ambition or for survival in a dangerous age

ed the prestige of the young Caesar, winning him adherents from every class and every party. He redoubled his efforts, and Ro

suitable and indeed laudable occupation for members of the governing class : the retired politician might with propriety occu

incts: a freedman, the tutor of Pompeius Magnus, was the first of his class . 1 So popular had history become. On the writing

unity, but discord and disquiet. Italy was not reconciled to Rome, or class to class. As after Sulla, the colonies of veteran

t discord and disquiet. Italy was not reconciled to Rome, or class to class . As after Sulla, the colonies of veterans, while

of knights had everything to gain from the coercion of the governing class and the abolition of active politics: their senti

the men of property and influence. 1 A day would come when the ruling class in the cities of Asia might hope to enter the Sen

he Roman People. If the Roman oligarchy was to survive as a governing class it would have to abate its ambitions and narrow t

was Roman and Republican, for power rested upon the laws, with every class in the Commonwealth keeping to traditional functi

port of men of property and the active co- operation of the governing class . To that end, he modified the forms of the consti

other Romans of ancient aristocratic stock, Tiberius could rise above class and recognize merit when he saw it. In Agrippa

A number of victims of the purge probably belonged to the deplorable class of senators unable to keep up their station. For

n), boldly extended the term from the senatorial order to cover every class in society, not shutting out freedmen. 1 What in

r of the province of Raetia. 4 Secondly, the freedmen. The commercial class profited in the Revolution, by purchasing the lan

vil Wars no doubt a conventional assertion, not restricted to any one class of the wealthy in the Principate of Augustus. Non

t transmitted the choice flower of its own members to the Senate. The class of knights, indeed, is the cardinal factor in the

than the public and necessary prominence of members of the governing class , proconsuls, legates and quaestors, permitted to

d hitherto separated senators from knights. They belonged to the same class in society, but differed in public station and pr

cially appeal for precedent, cf. BSR Papers XIV (1938), 6 ff. For the class of men referred to, compare the phrase employed b

vus; in its working it was liberal and ‘progressive’. Moreover, every class in society from senators down to freedmen now enj

tocracy of Italy. Senators represented, not a region or a town, but a class , precisely the men of property, ‘boni viri et loc

enthusiast for merit wherever it might be discovered and careless of class , but a small-town bourgeois, devoted and insatiab

n. Caesar and Tiberius, the Julian and the Claudian, knew their own class better and knew its failings. His name, his amb

lled for special treatment. The legates of Galatia are an instructive class . Four men of note governed Galatia at different

gh to illuminate the varied composition of the élite of the governing class , to set forth the manner in which the principes w

i homines, next to Agrippa and Taurus the most distinguished of their class , namely Lollius, Quirinius and Vinicius, all with

that they would be allowed to hold high command in Spain. The earlier class of provincial magnates recall by their gentilicia

audian returned to power, no testimony exists. 2 In his own order and class , it will be presumed, no lack of open joy and wel

n history, stamped with the sign of the demagogue, the tyrant and the class war; and many of the principal actors of the trag

e monopolized by the one Princeps, along with dementia. The governing class was left with the satisfaction of the less decora

geBook=>443 The same proud insistence on the inherited virtue of class and family stands out in Horace’s laudation of th

d its reaction upon the men, who, instead of a partner from their own class , preferred alliance with a freedwoman, or none at

a counterpart the collegia iuvenum, clubs of young men of the officer class . These bodies provided an apprenticeship for mili

ware of the qualities which the Princeps expected. To the governing class the penalties were in proportion to the duties of

ff., cf. 167 ff. PageBook=>451 It is by no means certain what class of cultivator the Georgics of Virgil were intende

d commerce and might be called town-dwellers, especially the freedman class , the antithesis of urban and rural at this time i

ue togatam. 3 To this identity in origin and sentiment with a large class in Italy Augustus owed much of his success as a p

pe the habits of a whole people and restore the ideals of a governing class . That the official religion of the Roman People

isguise, the decline of Italy and the transformation of her governing class , the rule of wealth was conveniently masked as a

Empire. When the rule of Augustus is established, men of letters, a class whose habit it had been to attack the dominant in

and all three were on terms of personal friendship with Augustus. The class to which these men of letters belonged had everyt

m vocatur. ’ 5 Tristia 2, 354. No Roman husband, even in the lowest class of society, had any cause to suspect him (ib. 351

rty and disrepute, hating and hated. 2 Labienus vented his rancour on class and individual without discrimination and without

ed. Not a mere faction of the nobility had been defeated, but a whole class . The contest had been not merely political but so

the Valerii terminated with two characters symbolic of the doom of a class , Claudius’ wife, the beautiful and abandoned Vale

men sprung from Triumviral or Augustan consuls: only one man of this class commands an army, and a small one at that. He was

Though all too often arrogant, selfish and licentious, the governing class of the Republic was fertile in talent of the most

unwilling instrument of the process, was sickened when men of his own class abandoned their Roman tradition and behaved like

;508 Captured and enslaved by the traditions of the Roman governing class and of Roman historical writing, Tacitus abandone

ted upon support and subsidy by a military leader, the enemy of their class , acquired in return for the cession of their powe

of Roman knights passed by patronage into the ranks of the governing class , the conviction not merely of the inevitability b

a sentimental cult, most fervently practised among the members of the class that owed everything to the Empire. The senator H

tion of the Revolution was neither exclusive nor immobile. While each class in society had its peculiar functions, there was

es, 408 f.; real function under the Principate, 407. Senators, as a class , 10 ff.; wealth of, 12, 14, 135, 380 f.; created