nstitutional history has been severely restricted. Instead, the noble houses of Rome and the principal allies of the various p

t the plebeians to political equality, certain of the great patrician houses , Valerii, Fabii and Cornelii, none the less held

garchy, a narrow ring, namely the nobiles, or descendants of consular houses , whether patrician or plebeian in origin, regarde

C. Fonteius and L. Licinius Murena, descendants of ancient and famous houses of praetorian rank.) Gelzer’s lucid explanation o

truments of masculine policy. Far from it: the daughters of the great houses commanded political influence in their own right,

and fashion of dynastic politics changes but little; and though noble houses suffered defeat in the struggle for power, and lo

lerii and the Fabii. 1 To the Fasti of the Roman Republic these great houses each contributed forty-five consuls, exceeded onl

ch through Marius as from internal disasters and the rise of dynastic houses of the plebeian nobility. But neither Valerii nor

ld rank not so much from resources of their own as from alliance with houses of the plebeian aristocracy. The greatest of thos

cinii, great soldiers and distinguished orators, not to mention other houses of repute. 4 The Marcii, in ancient dignity rival

first stormy years of the renovated oligarchy. 5 Among other eminent houses of the plebeian nobility in the Marian faction we

ubborn character, but of no great moment in politics. 3 Roman noble houses , decadent or threatened by rivals in power and di

it his allegiance for all time. Caesar possessed close kin in certain houses of the moderate nobility; 3 and his second wife,

alled ancient history and revealed the political decline of two great houses . The Pompeii had once been hangers-on of the Scip

old sacerdotal family. 4 Sulla and Caesar, both members of patrician houses that had passed through a long period of obscurit

conomic system, by active rivals and by the rise of dynastic plebeian houses like the Metelli, they remembered their ancient g

lii occupy a special rank in the political history of Rome, patrician houses which seem to have formed an alliance for power w

where, tells of cities or nations, often with neglect of the dynastic houses that ruled them in a feudal fashion. NotesPage=

h probability were the Valerii, perhaps the Fabii. 2 These baronial houses brought with them to Rome the cults and legends o

ese foreign dynasts were taken up and brought in by certain patrician houses for their own political ends and for Rome’s great

Licinii is Etruscan, disguised by a Latin termination. 3 The plebeian houses might acquire wealth and dynastic power at Rome,

rather than examples. The governing oligarchy, not least the dynastic houses of the plebeian nobility, had been growing ever c

n fear for their lives, the Liberators barricaded themselves in their houses . Nor, as the days passed, did it become safe for

standing went to M. Aemilius Lepidus. Like the patriciate, the great houses of the plebeian aristocracy, the backbone of Sull

tempted by a good investment. The Caesarian leaders therefore seized houses and estates and put them on the market. Their own

ttain the consulate. Beside them stand three descendants of patrician houses , Ap. Claudius Pulcher (cos. 38), Paullus Aemilius

s of Roman knights: there were a number of sons of highly respectable houses of praetorian rank). PageBook=>244 perishe

ars. 3 No less conspicuous were the gaps in the ranks of the dynastic houses of the old plebeian aristocracy among the princip

xtended to embrace the whole aristocracy in town and country priestly houses descended from kings and gods of timeless antiqui

rful as C. Cornelius Gallus could easily take a wife from the noblest houses in Rome. 4 On this topic see above all J. Gage,

e and resolute glance had inherited in full measure the statecraft of houses that held power in Rome of their own right, the C

aesarian party comprised diverse elements, the most ancient patrician houses and the most recent of careerists. But this was a

nst their patron and imperator. Augustus both created new patrician houses and sought, like Sulla and Caesar before him, to

nobility, patrician or plebeian. Valerii, Claudii, Fabii and Aemilii, houses whose bare survival, not to say traditional prima

llaterals may have usurped rank and forged pedigrees. Over some noble houses of this age hangs the veil of a dubious authentic

mily tree. 3 Some frauds could perhaps evade detection. Certain great houses had sunk for ever. Others, through casualties in

hrough the marriages of others he subsequently ensnared the patrician houses of the Cornelii Scipiones, the Aemilii Lepidi, th

mong the partisans thus honoured were descendants of ancient plebeian houses , such as the renegade M. Junius Silanus; but also

ontrol of all games and largesse. The descendants of great Republican houses still retained popularity with the plebs of Rome

Aemilia and Narbonensis by the Domitia recalled the exploits of noble houses ; and towns and trophies commemorated the glory an

ecomes regular. On the Fasti now prevail the descendants of ancient houses , glorious in the history of the Roman Republic or

, 1). Cf. also below, p. 425. 3 On the Plautii, one of the earliest houses of the new plebeian nobility, see Münzer, RA, 36f

berius must have had a following among the nobiles. Of the dynastic houses of the patrician nobility now renascent, Aemilii

adly reduced above all the faction of the Liberators. Certain great houses remained, however, rivals of the Julii and Claudi

n alliance which brought enhanced splendour and eventual ruin to both houses . 1 L. Piso was a neutral, commanding repute and

s a Claudian faction. In the background, however, stand certain noble houses which, for all their social eminence, do not seem

es stands behind Tiberius, mostly with interlocking matrimonial ties, houses of the ancient nobility like the Calpurnii and th

ure. Very different the proud sons of the great priestly and dynastic houses of Asia, now holding consular rank in the imperia

towns named in their honour and commemorating the glory of the great houses that were the Republic and Rome. The faction-wa

t. In the background lurk their allies or their rivals, certain great houses or permanent factions. The Scipiones had been an

d been an age of history. Their power had passed to the Metelli. Both houses waned before the Julii and their allies. The Mete

ninety-three. At her funeral were borne the imagines of twenty noble houses , her ancestors and her kin. 2 Yet Cassius’ stock,

Caesar, with the alliance of the Aemilii and certain other patrician houses , prevailed over Pompeius and the dominant faction

Dictator, an Octavius from Velitrae, after fighting against the great houses , attached them to his family and built up a new f

s Vesp. 23, 4. PageBook=>496 Such was the end of certain noble houses whose pedigrees were closely and fatally entwined

long. The Claudii Marcelli and the Marcii Philippi, ancient plebeian houses , were the first to go. 1 The line of the obscure

consul in the reign of Nero. 5 Such was the end of ancient patrician houses that recalled the earliest glories of the infant

4, 154). 9 P-W XVII, 877 f.; for the stemma, ib., 870. Of all noble houses , however, the Acilii Glabriones, not of great pol

vy council those wealthy dynasts would swamp out descendants of noble houses and impoverished senators from Latium. 5 PageNo

here remained but little of the Catonian faction or of the four noble houses that supported Pompeius. The patrician Lentuli we

cient families of Etruria, 82 f.; propertied classes, 89; Roman noble houses of Etruscan origin, 85 f.; Etruscan nomenclature,