believed only in destiny and the inexorable stars. In the beginning kings ruled at Rome, and in the end, as was fated, it c

ROMAN OLIGARCHY PageBook=>010 WHEN the patricians expelled the kings from Rome, they were careful to retain the kingly

following (clientela) towns and whole regions, provinces and nations, kings and tetrarchs. Such were the resources which am

Roman conqueror marched along the great roads of Asia, dispersing the kings of the East, displaying power and founding cities

men loyal to the government, or at least not dangerous; 3 and all the kings , princes and tetrarchs, remembering their patron,

n class, was an ominous type, the monarchic aristocrat, recalling the kings of Rome and fatal to any Republic. NotesPage=&g

ople that his house was descended from the immortal gods and from the kings of Rome. 2 Patrician and plebeian understood each

him. In the West, in Africa and throughout Asia, towns, provinces and kings were bound to the imperator of the Roman People b

No less real the menace from Pompeius, the tribes of the Balkans, the kings and horsemen of the East. 1 Pompeius derided Lucu

li had forgotten Marius and the war against Jugurtha. 1 In the East kings , dynasts and cities stood loyal to Pompeius as re

mbers senators, knights and centurions, business men and provincials, kings and dynasts. Some fell in the wars, like Gabinius

the capital. Like the patricians of Rome, they asserted descent from kings and gods, and through all the frauds of pedigree

monarchs of foreign stock had ruled at Rome. More important than the kings were their rivals and heirs in power, the patrici

rcii were powerful enough to obtrude an ancestor upon the list of the kings , Ancus Marcius; and that dubious figure, Marcius

an extreme honour and unmixed blessing to the descendant of Etruscan kings or even to an Italian magnate. Of the consulate

tician, with his public boast of the Julian house, descended from the kings of Rome and from the immortal gods; they buried h

es over the East, rewarded friends and punished enemies, set up petty kings or deposed them. 1 So did he spend the winter aft

south all the lands from Syria down to Jerusalem. Most of the client kings were disloyal or incompetent. Plancus the procons

be the time of Sulla come again; in a larger sphere, the epoch of the kings who inherited the empire of Alexander. To discern

the native dynasts proved incompetent or treacherous. In many of the kings , tetrarchs and petty tyrants abode loyalty, not t

Laranda, whose principality lay beside the high road into Asia. 2 The kings of Commagene and Cappadocia lent help to the inva

n the eastern lands. Antonius discovered the men and set them up as kings without respect for family or dynastic claims.

st, the greater part of the eastern territories was consigned to four kings , to rule as agents of Rome and wardens of the fro

sonal allegiance. Pompeius Magnus, binding to his clientela all the kings , dynasts and cities of the wide East, had shown t

whole aristocracy in town and country priestly houses descended from kings and gods of timeless antiquity, possessing royal

abulous wealth and wide influence in Asia, founding thereby a line of kings . 6 It was not enough to acquire the adherence o

as inevitable in the eastern lands. The agents and beneficiaries were kings or cities. For Rome, advantage as well as necessi

sessing its own traditions of language, habit and rule. The dependent kings were already there: let them remain, the instrume

consort of Egypt’s Queen, the father of her children who were crowned kings and queens, his dual role as Roman proconsul and

ion confronted Maecenas at Arretium, where his ancestors had ruled as kings , that the Appuleii (a family related to Octavianu

the legions of the imperial Republic had shattered and swept away the kings of the East, carrying the eagles in victory to th

tania. Such was the fate of Egypt’s Queen and her children, crowned kings and queens. The Roman imperator seized the herita

in Italy and the provinces knew him as their founder or their patron, kings , tetrarchs and dynasts over the wide empire were

The Roman loathed the effeminate and sinister descendant of Etruscan kings who flaunted in public the luxury and the vices i

ftains of Gallia Comata, the wealthy aristocracy of Asia and even the kings of the East would enter the imperial Senate, time

d interested defenders of the established order cities, dynasts and kings , Roman citizens and natives. The provincial recru

the Empire, east and west, stood firm by their protector. The vassal kings , though still in name the allies of the Roman Peo

orked for Rome, as though provincial governors. Augustus regarded the kings as integral members of the Empire:1 a century lat

imperial Senate of Rome welcomed to its membership the descendants of kings and tetrarchs. 2 In the provinces of the West,

of the Roman People at home and abroad. Plebs and army, provinces and kings were no longer in the clientela of individual pol

ally lost ground. When life ebbed along with power, the descendant of kings who had led to battle the legions of Etruria surr

champion of the Roman People, the master of the legions, the king of kings . For all that, they might flourish in the shadow

e. Armies of robust Italian peasants had crushed and broken the great kings in the eastern lands, the successors of the Maced

ruler and to his house (3/2 B.C.). 6 In regions where submission to kings was an ingrained habit and inevitable fashion, it

of citizens or free men, the fervent zeal may be imagined with which kings , tetrarchs and petty tyrants promoted the cult of

the sources of his personal power in relation to towns, provinces and kings . The sum of power and prestige was tremendous. Wh

njoyed long rule, though not undisturbed by the nomad Gaetulians. The kings of Thrace were more often engaged in active warfa

gument for firm control of the State. Like the vain pomp of eastern kings , the fanaticism of the doctrinaire was distastefu

explained they must be, it is not with reference to the religions and kings of the Hellenistic East but from Rome and Roman p

261 ff., 285 f., 288 f., 300, 322, 365, 366, 404 f., 473 ff. Client kings , function of, 259, 271 ff., 300 f., 365 f., 476 f