m the transmitted memory of the origins, alliances and feuds of their families ; and history never belied its beginnings. Of nece

society still survived in a city-state and governed an empire. Noble families determined the history of the Republic, giving th

but the most revolutionary changes in Roman politics were the work of families or of a few men. A small party, zealous for refor

a sham. Of the forces that lay behind or beyond it, next to the noble families the knights were the most important. Through alli

rating a century of revolution. The traditional contests of the noble families were complicated, but not abolished, by the strif

publican Rome about twenty or thirty men, drawn from a dozen dominant families , hold a monopoly of office and power. From time t

ant families, hold a monopoly of office and power. From time to time, families rise and fall: as Rome’s rule extends in Italy, t

liance with houses of the plebeian aristocracy. The greatest of those families had earned or confirmed their title of nobility b

l battle and whose father had defeated the Cimbri; there were several families of the Licinii, great soldiers and distinguished

three consulates, but not unaided. 4 Against novi homines the great families after Sulla stood with close ranks and forbidding

political satire with impunity. 1 Pompeius was also related to other families of the local gentry, the men of substance in the

The coalition may summarily be described as four ancient and eminent families , linked closely with one another and with the Cat

lates in this generation rewarded their sagacity. 3 With these four families was now joined the faction of Cato. Of his allies

i, Marcus (cos. 51) and Gaius (49). For the kinship between these two families , above, p. 44, n. 1. Spinther’s son married a Cae

rted Pompeius and of Cato’s partisans. 2 Civil war might cut across families : as this was a contest neither of principle nor o

s new men, knights and municipal aristocrats. 3 Certain distinguished families of that party had not been proscribed; and some r

widely in social distinction nobiles, members of reputable senatorial families that had not reached the consulate and sons of Ro

membered their ancient glory and strove to recover leadership. Some families looked to Pompeius as the heir of Sulla and the p

sar. With the Roman plebs and the legions of Gaul, a group of ancient families , young men of eager talent and far- sighted banke

om for himself, was mindful of old Catilinarian memories. Neither the families of Roman veterans NotesPage=>075 1 BG 1, 4

. The province could boast opulent and cultivated natives of dynastic families , Hellenized before they became Roman, whose citiz

and a traditional religious observance. 6 Of certain local dynastic families it could in truth be proved as well as stated tha

t part of alien origin. When Alba Longa fell, her gods and her ruling families were transplanted to Rome: hence the Julii and th

onial houses brought with them to Rome the cults and legends of their families , imposing them upon the religion of the Roman Sta

rii; 3 and men could remember whole wars waged by a single clan. Such families might modify their name to a Latin flexion; but p

tury did not portend the triumph of the Roman plebs. The earliest new families to reach the consulate are plainly immigrant. Not

strust of the government, attested and intelligible even in towns and families that had long since been incorporated in the Roma

hundred in number, comprised adherents from all over Italy. Like the families proscribed by Sulla, regions where Marian influen

re names, the first and perhaps the last senators of their respective families . 3 Above all, the confederate peoples of the Be

ration yet, it is true, before they can show a senator; 4 the leading families of the Paeligni and Marsi were broken and impover

ing, with another Poppaedius Silo, an historic name. 8 Other dynastic families of Italia, providing insurgent leaders in the Bel

arliest consuls bearing these names all belong, as is appropriate, to families that furnished prominent partisans to the cause o

raudulent financiers, unscrupulous freedmen, ambitious sons of ruined families from the local gentry of the towns of Italy. The

e: in his province lust was matched with cruelty. Virgins of the best families at Byzantium cast themselves down wells to escape

some will have remained loyal to the Caesarian party. Certain wealthy families , such as the Aelii Lamiae from Formiae or the Vin

the Lentuli and the Marcelli were in eclipse, for the heads of those families had mostly perished, leaving few sons; 2 there wa

es in alarm joined the ranks of discontent. Owners of land with their families flocked to Rome, suppliant and vocal. 3 The urban

like Agrippa and Maecenas, a nucleus of support already from certain families of the ancient aristocracy and a steadily growing

ls, in so far as definitely attested, were the first members of their families to acquire senatorial rank. The admirable D. Carf

n of ability and ambition paired with aristocrats of the most ancient families . Many minor partisans served him well, of brief

nia. 4 These were able or unscrupulous military men, the first of new families to attain the consulate. Beside them stand three

the main his marshals, with a few patricians, his new allies from the families of the Claudii, the Aemilii and the Scipiones. In

a total without precedent. New men far outweighed the nobiles. 2 Some families of the aristocracy had NotesPage=>243 1 Di

Marcius, cos. suff. 36). Ten only are sons or descendants of consular families . There remain twenty-five men, the earliest consu

here remain twenty-five men, the earliest consuls of their respective families (not all, of course, sons of Roman knights: there

ans were sparse enough at the best of seasons: Octavianus created new families of that order, for patronage but with a good pret

t a single Metellus, Marcellus, Licinius, Junius or Calpurnius. Those families were not extinct, but many years would have to pa

, to urge that many of the upstarts derived their origin from ancient families among the aristocracies of the kindred peoples of

(perhaps falsely), a freedman,2 the others, however, sons of wealthy families from the local aristocracies in the towns of the

gue. In the previous year he had augmented the total of the patrician families ; the two colleagues now held a census in virtue o

sight would be exercised— few legions for garrison, proconsuls of new families rather than noble, and praetorian rather than con

ad fallen in the last struggle of the Republic, or the descendants of families to which the consulate passed as an inherited pre

For her son she might have selected an heiress from the most eminent families of Rome: she chose instead the daughter of Agripp

posts; 5 further, it is by no means unlikely that sons of equestrian families from the towns of Italy entered the legions for a

municipal taint could be detected in the most distinguished of noble families . The grandfather of L. Piso (cos. 58 B.C.) was

dent that the Senate after Sulla contained many members of equestrian families . 5 Like other senators outside the circle of the

an families. 5 Like other senators outside the circle of the consular families , such men were commonly precluded from the highes

service would ultimately bring the consulate and ennoblement of their families for ever. In brief, Augustus’ design was to mak

came from the ancient aristocracy of the land, dynastic and priestly families tracing descent unbroken from gods and heroes, or

in the Senate or even at Rome. They were the first senators of their families , sometimes the last, with no prospect of the cons

his daughter married the tax-gatherer T. Flavius Sabinus. With these families lay the future. NotesPage=>361 1 P. Paquiu

already had gone farther, securing from Augustus ennoblement of their families . In the forefront the military men, carrying on t

all the years 15 B.C. A.D. 3 very few consuls who are not of consular families . The mere six novi homines do not belong to the s

a consensus Italiae, for it represented a coalition of the municipal families , whether in the Senate or not, all alike now look

mines was patently not a ‘novus mos’. 3 All men knew that the noblest families of the Roman aristocracy went back to Latin or to

os. 23 B.C.), joined perhaps from a disinterested patriotism. The old families had been decimated by a generation of civil wars:

nd Taurus. Of the consuls of the period 25-19 B.C., eight come of new families against five nobles. 3 The restored Republic, it

, P-W VI, 1784. PageBook=>377 The dim descendants of forgotten families were discovered in obscurity, rescued from povert

ate. PageBook=>379 As time went on, more and more aristocratic families were lured by matrimony into the family and follo

ing them to preserve the dignity of their station and propagate their families . In the year A.D. 4 he thus augmented the censu

would not suffice. Augustus at once proceeded to create new patrician families by a law of 30 B.C.8 Among the partisans thus hon

s quae imp. R. saecc. I, II, III fuerunt (Diss. Berlin, 1909). Of the families of the old plebeian nobility thus honoured were p

their friends and their adherents, bringing young men of respectable families and suitable sentiments into the equestris militi

reat political ladies of the Republic, from the daughters of consular families such as Sempronia and Servilia down to minor but

ion or greed, to be won at the cost of intrigue and corruption. Noble families enlisted whole provinces in their clientela and s

ntly ennobled. But nobiles, and especially patricians (for the latter families were older than the Roman State, dynastic and eve

e perils of marrying a princess. Such was the group of aristocratic families entwined about the roots of the monarchy. Livia a

om that family: which cannot be proved. As perhaps with certain other families in the time of Augustus, genealogical claims may

etelli, soon to fade away, cannot show a consul at this time. 4 Other families dominant in the oligarchy of government after Sul

indication of the range and character of Tiberius’ party. Members of families that hitherto had not risen to the consulate are

cian Cornelii Lentuli. 1 A powerful coalition of individuals and of families stands behind Tiberius, mostly with interlocking

to marry and propagate. Material encouragement was required. Many old families had died out through lack of heirs, the existence

under his successors in the dynasty of the Julii and Claudii. Opulent families spent their substance in ostentation or perished

l Senate. Still less does he venture to attack the opulent provincial families issuing from Spain and Narbonensis. They were now

rincely gardens, Titius and Quirinius acquiring brides from patrician families , Taurus flaunting in the city of Rome a bodyguard

and a warning. In the brief respite between the Dictatorships the old families , especially the patricians, marshalled their reso

ate in times of civil peace. The Revolution made an end to many noble families old and recent. The dominant figures of the mon

us and Caesar, engross the stage of history, imposing their names, as families had done in happier days, upon a period or a gove

1 The plebeian Claudii Marcelli were also among the group of consular families that supported Pompeius. Their main line lapsed w

ommsen in CIL 12, p. 376. PageBook=>492 Banded with these four families , the Catonian faction suffered heavy loss through

s, among them a great jurist, endured down to Nero. 3 Certain noble families , showing their last consuls in the age of Pompeiu

er that time. That was not all. To Roman and aristocratic pride the families that waned and died in the last generation of the

enemies now became involved in the most fantastic relationships. The families of the Julii, the Aemilii, the Antonii and the Do

d fatally entwined with the family tree of the Julio-Claudians. Other families related in some way or other to the reigning dyna

See also Table V at end. PageBook=>497 By paradox all of these families at first escaped alliance with the ruling dynasty

othal or marriage, with paradoxical and fatal results, dragging other families down to ruin. 1 A descendant of Pompeius Magnus r

anus (Tacitus, Ann. 6, 30), reinforcing an earlier link between their families (ILS 8996). The last consular Lentuli were P. Sci

duration. Some were unable to perpetuate their name and establish the families which their resplendent fortune could so handsome

us, Calvisius his ally and peer and C. Norbanus Flaccus founded noble families ; 1 and the diplomats Plancus and Pollio, tenaciou

y or prolong their family by one generation only. 3 Nor are the new families ennobled for loyal service in the years of peace

he two Vibii from Larinum are the first and the last consuls of their families . Papius and his colleague in the consulate, the P

or Augustan novi homines, however, appeared to have established their families securely enough. But good fortune seldom accompan

ly enough. But good fortune seldom accompanied their descendants. The families of two Pompeian partisans, L. Scribonius Libo and

ing dynasty was no less dangerous. Like the nobiles, the new consular families , as befitted the dual composition of the governin

erius from Vienna and a Domitius from Nemausus, descendants of native families long enfranchised. 1 A few years, and Seneca the

lish. E. Stein (Hermes LII (1917), 564 ff.) argues that it applies to families consular before A.D. 14 the year in which electio

n People grieved at the decline in power and splendour of the ancient families whose names embodied the history of Republican Ro

r art, the record of consulates and triumphs, the elogia of the noble families . The earliest native historian of note, Cato the

, in his conception of real history he studied the genealogy of noble families and compiled the public careers of illustrious me

salvaged honour and fame, yet had done well for themselves and their families . Messalla changed sides, passing to Antonius afte

rius, 129; Triumviral and Augustan novi homines, 199 f., 363; ancient families of Etruria, 82 f.; propertied classes, 89; Roman

., 453, 465 f.; unification of, 86 ff., 286 ff., 359, 365, 450; local families in, 10, 31, 82 ff., 356, 359; see also Bellum Ita

37 f., 242, 328; origin, 237; no descendants, 498. Latium, plebeian families from, 85; support for Liberators in, 101; Augusta

, 82 ff., 356, 359; propertied classes, 14, 49, 89, 359; impoverished families 91, 129; family trees, 83, 361; repute and virtue

mands, 502 ff. Nola, siege of, 87. Nomenclature, of local Italian families , 83 f.; non-Latin, types of, 93 f., 361 f.; Itali

us, Ti. (cos. A.D. 45), 500, 504. Plebeians, 10, 68; great plebeian families , 19 f.; local origins, 84 f. Plebs, venality an

, 189, 202. Rutilii, 25. Sabines, see Sabinum. Sabinum, patrician families from, 84, 493; senators from, 31, 83, 90, 361. Sa