subordination. After Sulla’s ordinances, a restored oligarchy of the nobiles held office at Rome. Pompeius fought against it;

ory arose from the inscribed record of consulates and triumphs of the nobiles , from the transmitted memory of the origins, alli

er. Within the Senate, itself an oligarchy, a narrow ring, namely the nobiles , or descendants of consular houses, whether patri

ed to wield an influence beyond all relation to their number; and the nobiles , though a wider class, formed yet a distinct mino

gh a wider class, formed yet a distinct minority in the Senate. The nobiles are predominant: yet in the last generation of th

o the Senate but access to the consulate was jealously guarded by the nobiles . It was a scandal and a pollution if a man withou

ntimate friends. There was no breach in the walls a faction among the nobiles had opened the gates. Cicero would have preserved

nsible opposition between Senate and People, Optimates and Populares, nobiles and novi homines, but by the strife for power, we

t by the strife for power, wealth and glory. The contestants were the nobiles among themselves, as individuals or in groups, op

imperii of the nobilitas cannot evade detection. 1 Three weapons the nobiles held and wielded, the family, money and the polit

an noble clan won concentrated support for the rising politician. The nobiles were dynasts, their daughters princesses. Marriag

12 1 Compare Münzer’s comments on the deliberate concealment by the nobiles , for their own ends, of the true character of Rom

B.C.), restoring the tribunate, destroyed Sulla’s system but left the nobiles nominally in power. They were able to repel and c

atilina attacked property as well as privilege. The government of the nobiles , supported by a sacred union of the possessing cl

’s history but could show a Claudius intolerably arrogant towards the nobiles his rivals, or grasping personal power under cove

d finance, and at the same time carefully soliciting the aid of young nobiles whose clientela carried many votes. 5 The oligarc

ore consulars: he controlled a nexus of political alliances among the nobiles . The Optimates stood sorely in need of a leader

blished sole rule, but by that alone and not in solid permanence. The nobiles were much too stubborn to admit a master, even on

A. Gabinius. 6 For primacy in Rome Pompeius needed support from the nobiles . The dynastic marriage pointed the way. Sulla, as

252. Hirrus was a great landowner. Varro (RR 2, 1, 2) refers to his ‘ nobiles pecuariae’ in Bruttium inherited, as Cichorius su

comprised not only personal adherents like Afranius and Gabinius but nobiles in the alliance of the general, seeking profit an

e. Pompeius was playing a double game. He hoped to employ the leading nobiles to destroy Caesar, whether it came to war or not,

aracter of Caesar. The influence and example of Cato spurred on the nobiles and accelerated war. Helped by the power, the p

rnel a small group of men paramount in social distinction, not merely nobiles but patrician; on the outer fringe, many excellen

l. 2, 27). PageBook=>052 To rule, he needed the support of the nobiles , yet he had to curtail their privileges and repre

y attach to that phrase. The Dictatorship was enough. The rule of the nobiles , he could see, was an anachronism in a world-empi

ack to earlier alliances. Sulla restored the oligarchic rule of the nobiles . Thirty years later they clustered around Pompeiu

s became Caesarians. 1 He won over many former opponents, sons of the nobiles or of Roman knights, and not for the worst of rea

t;064 their allegiance. 1 Not only senators chose Caesar, but young nobiles at that, kinsmen of the consulars who supported P

general. On Norbanus, cf. below, p. 200; on Carrinas, p. 90. 3 For nobiles of the Marian faction, above, p. 19. 4 He was m

riends and political associates, varying widely in social distinction nobiles , members of reputable senatorial families that ha

t him. No matter Caesar’s faction numbered not only many senators but nobiles at that. Most conspicuous of all is the group o

nators but nobiles at that. Most conspicuous of all is the group of nobiles of patrician stock. Caesar, like Sulla, was a pat

matione, nobilitate princeps’ (Pro Cluentio II), On the class of domi nobiles , cf. Pro Cluentio 23; 109; 196; Sallust, BC 17, 4

e would aspire to the consulate. Marius nursed resentment against the nobiles and sought to break through their monopoly of pat

into the Senate, no novus homo for whom he strove in defiance of the nobiles to secure the consulate. In their political caree

. 6 Sallust, BC 17, 4: ‘ad hoc multi ex coloniis et municipiis domi nobiles . ’ Etruria, an eager ally of Lepidus only fifteen

natorial rank before the outbreak of the Civil War. Five of them were nobiles , with patricians in high and striking relief. 6 T

in the municipio, deferential and flattered by the presence of Roman nobiles , whom even Caesarian consuls acclaimed as ‘claris

s were lacking in splendour (ib. 67). The fortunes of certain eminent nobiles were far from ample. The excellent L. Aurelius Co

n implicated in the Ides of March. Like Brutus himself, many of these nobiles had abandoned the cause of Pompeius after Pharsal

us. The Caesarians Servilius and Calvinus were consulars already, and nobiles at that. Political compacts among the nobiles w

onsulars already, and nobiles at that. Political compacts among the nobiles were never complete without a marriage- alliance:

ded, among the aristocracy at least. Sulla had many enemies among the nobiles , but certain of the more eminent, through family

and essence a peculiar levy upon capital. As in Sulla’s proscription, nobiles and political adversaries might head the list: th

ulk is made up by the names of obscure senators or Roman knights. The nobiles were not necessarily the wealthiest of the citize

be deplored, were the gaps in other ranks and orders. The bulk of the nobiles , both ex-Pompeians and adherents of Caesar, banis

own class. The older men were dead, dishonoured or torpid: the young nobiles went in a body to the camp of Brutus and Cassius,

as by its policy. The Triumvirs had expelled from Italy not only the nobiles , their political enemies, but their victims as we

s 2, 71, 2 f.: these were all (including Drusus) related together. Of nobiles there also perished Sex. Quinctilius Varus (Velle

aesar was acquiring a considerable faction among the aristocracy. The nobiles would attract others of their own rank and many a

the Triumvirs. Nor did they achieve great fame afterwards, either the nobiles or the novi homines. 2 Octavianus may now have ho

ed over thirty, a total without precedent. New men far outweighed the nobiles . 2 Some families of the aristocracy had NotesPa

ocracy with a new nobility. No record stands of the sentiments of the nobiles when they contemplated the golden crown worn by a

overnment that should replace the narrow and corrupt oligarchy of the nobiles . 2 In his disillusionment, now that Rome had rela

isting order in state and society. Republican libertas, denied to the nobiles of Rome, could not be conceded to a freedman’s so

and religion of his own people. It was much more than the rule of the nobiles that had collapsed at Philippi. The doom of empir

e consul (34 B.C.), but seems to have lapsed from politics. The young nobiles M. Aemilius Scaurus, his half-brother, and Cn. Co

al to his father’s friend, his step-father Antonius. 5 Other youthful nobiles among the Antonians were M. Licinius Crassus, M.

er, Hermes LXXI (1936), 229; ABOVE, P. 128. PageBook=>270 were nobiles , yet this was a revolutionary period prizing and

gn when Atratinus and Fonteius changed sides. A number of the younger nobiles remained, however, some to the very end. Most s

orking in conservative interests and supported by a powerful group of nobiles , yet accused of monarchic designs, was the great

nomen Latinum. ’ Sallust also records (ib. 40, 2) how in 109 B.C. the nobiles employed ‘homines nominis Latini et socios Italic

achieved. It was worth it not merely to the middle class, but to the nobiles . Their cause had fallen long ago, not perhaps at

ld afford in the magnanimity of success to pass over the scorn of the nobiles ; he would not be harried by tribunes or constrain

he campaign of Philippi, C. Norbanus. But there were presumably three nobiles in the prime of life; 2 and three recent novi hom

nicius are not found in charge of military provinces; still less such nobiles as the three Valerii, Cinna’s grandson, or Cn. Po

ficial acts and official history sought to demonstrate. He feared the nobiles , his enemies. Consulars with armies were rivals t

cent service like M. Lollius and M. Vinicius; and a new generation of nobiles was growing up, the sons of men who had fallen in

t of the whole people. 3 This was the New State with a vengeance. The nobiles were helpless but vindictive: they made a point o

inheritance of sole power, to become all that Augustus had been. The nobiles would not have stood it. Agrippa is rather to be

d conservative party that had superseded the spurious Republic of the nobiles . No mere stabilizing here, but a constant change

n and his acts had denied the revolutionary leader the support of the nobiles in his youth. Before his marriage to Livia, only

rinceps had his revenge. He did not care to exclude any large body of nobiles from the Senate. But the master of patronage coul

patronage could attach to his cause even the most recalcitrant of the nobiles ; and some, like Cn. Piso (cos. 23 B.C.), joined p

tary dynast. Augustus bent all his efforts to attaching these young nobiles to his person, to his family and to the new syste

audable and sincere more likely that the Princeps wished to teach the nobiles a sharp lesson by conjuring up the perils of popu

aving vacant one of the two consulates for the next year, 21 B.C. Two nobiles then contended, L. Junius Silanus and Q. Lepidus:

In the seven years 39-33 nineteen novi homines appear as against nine nobiles . 2 After seizing power in 32 B.C. Octavianus has

age, advancing his own partisans, in 31-29 four novi homines and five nobiles . With 28 B.C. annual consulates come back, monopo

. 3 The restored Republic, it is evident, meant no restoration of the nobiles , the proportion on the Fasti showing no great cha

stus’ own enhanced security, with less cause to fear and distrust the nobiles , but of accident. To replenish the ranks of the n

distrust the nobiles, but of accident. To replenish the ranks of the nobiles , mercilessly thinned by war and proscriptions, a

Fasti, both with military service to their credit, as against eleven nobiles . 1 Conspicuous among the latter are men whose fat

stic policy of Augustus constrained him to bid for the support of the nobiles . Hence a steady cheapening of the consulate. In e

a man far, save when a conspicuous dearth of ability drove a group of nobiles to take up a popular candidate for fear of someth

s who had deserved well of the Roman People. 6 Yet there were certain nobiles whose merits fell short of recompense in the reig

h peace and prosperity polite arts returned to favour. Certain of the nobiles , old or recent, displayed some show of talent in

ut his favour, no novus homo could have reached the consulate. Of the nobiles , many of the most eminent were attached to the ca

least the most alert and most astute, but not the whole body, of the nobiles . NotesPage=>377 1 T. Quinctius Crispinus S

e family and following of the Princeps. Of his allies among the young nobiles the most able, the most eminent and the most high

Aemilii Lepidi, the Valerii and the Fabii. As the young generation of nobiles grew up and passed through the avenue of politica

s. They could hardly be blamed. The consulate was the monopoly of the nobiles : after the consulate, little occupation, save a p

. Lollius, is honoured by Horace with the dedication of an ode. 2 The nobiles can hardly be said to fare any better. 3 To the m

his family, so perhaps was Lollius. Silvanus and Piso, however, were nobiles . These men all held high command in the provinc

lition of free election soon diminished the personal influence of the nobiles . After the constructions of the viri triumphales,

ulate in his thirty- third year, like his peers in that generation of nobiles . Privilege and patronage, and admitted as such bu

ressive. Close behind comes Quirinius. Above all, several groups of nobiles , the peers and rivals of Tiberius, gain splendour

party and harnessed as they had been to the service of the State, the nobiles now enjoy a brief and last renascence in the stra

acy of one of their own number. Augustus knew it. The ambition of the nobiles might have appeared the most serious menace to hi

ietly pointed out the folly of the attempt. Even if he succeeded, the nobiles would not put up with Cinna in the place of Augus

cian at that, and so was Tiberius Augustus had never been. Though the nobiles despised the origin of Augustus, remembered his p

s in the history of the Roman Republic or more recently ennobled. But nobiles , and especially patricians (for the latter famili

as was a colonial Roman, M. Annaeus Lucanus from Corduba. Among the nobiles were magnates who stood close to Augustus in the

er of standing in war and politics. A heavy preponderance of consular nobiles , consolidated by matrimonial pacts, was massed ar

d postponed revenge. Yet Tiberius must have had a following among the nobiles . Of the dynastic houses of the patrician nobili

as not a nonentity but a great political lady. Her paramours the five nobiles are not innocent triflers or moral reprobates but

rmounted scandal and conspiracy, merciless towards Julia and the five nobiles her allies; and in A.D.I, when his son and heir w

hem, however, to military command. 3 This being so, few indeed of the nobiles , the rivals and equals of Tiberius, could hope th

ectora roborant. Much more necessary was precept and coercion among nobiles less fortunate in politics and more exposed to te

erusia and even Actium were victories of the Caesarian party over the nobiles . Being recruited in so large a measure from Roman

ir sweet revenge when the New State was erected at the expense of the nobiles , as a result of their feuds and their follies.

the majority. The new men were contented, the most independent of the nobiles had perished. On a superficial view the domestic

. Most of the real history of the Principate is secret history. The nobiles were unable or unwilling to overthrow the New Sta

at. Less advertised by the government, but no less distasteful to the nobiles , were the domestic parsimony and petty superstiti

better cause in politics. 2 As he had been among the earliest of the nobiles who fought at Philippi to pass from Antonius to O

ristocracy and reveals the causes and tragedy of their decadence. The nobiles have not spoken themselves. They have left no per

omination of those dynasts never meant so drastic a depression of the nobiles . They were now confronted by an organized party a

tes. 490 1 Juvenal 8, 1. 2 lb. 3, 60 ff. PageBook=>491 The nobiles lost power and wealth, display, dignity and honou

ppa the solid and conspicuous monument of military despotism. For the nobiles , no more triumphs after war, no more roads, templ

capturing the Aemilian connexion. But alliances begot feuds, and the nobiles were involved in the struggles of the dynasts. Fo

ce or poverty, lack of enterprise or excess of principle, some of the nobiles failed to reach the consulate under Augustus. The

ars later (PIR2, C 295 and 317). PageBook=>498 So much for the nobiles . The successful novi homines of the Revolution an

Association with the reigning dynasty was no less dangerous. Like the nobiles , the new consular families, as befitted the dual

ly plutocratic order of society, steadily reduced the fortunes of the nobiles . Frugal and astute men of property from the newer

n one of the wealthiest citizens in all the world. Hostility to the nobiles was engrained in the Principate from its military

coalition government based largely on family ties has been built up, nobiles like Ahenobarbus, Piso and Paullus Fabius Maximus

ain disquieting incidents, and leads to the complete exclusion of the nobiles , the delayed but logical end of Revolution and Em

ot his ancestors and his name, the Emperor could not. Before long the nobiles disappear from the great military commands. Eight

the Augustan nobility, there are still on the Fasti three Republican nobiles and some seven or eight men sprung from Triumvira

varied orders. It is too simple an explanation of the decline of the nobiles under the Empire to assert their lack of ability;

ήσυàχίαν ἂγων καί τà έavτoύ πρàττων έσὠζετο. PageBook=>505 The nobiles were pushed aside from power, stripped of their e

evil found little encouragement. Tiberius, however, was insecure. The nobiles suffered from their own ambitions and feuds. It w

ns of Seianus’ faction and the family of Germanicus. At all turns the nobiles were imperilled above all and in the last resort

justice, with the procedure of a nominally independent Senate. The nobiles might savour a brief taste of revenge when scanda

rhythm, were none the less advancing remorselessly. The power of the nobiles was passing to the novi homines, to the knights,

ophanes. The Emperor Claudius, as frank and merciless an enemy to the nobiles as any of his ancestors, or any of the rulers of

rvants of the government. It could not be arrested. The defeat of the nobiles was spiritual as well as political. It was not me

o much the rigour of despotism as the servility and degeneracy of the nobiles that moves Tacitus to the sublimest indignation.

the most typical and most malicious portraits of novi homines. The nobiles were comparatively immune. But for that, the aris

ive, might be no better. After a social revolution the primacy of the nobiles was a fraud as well as an anachronism it rested u

praestante labore ad summas emergere opes rerumque potiri. 2 The nobiles , by their ambition and their feuds, had not merel

ce observed, ‘ulteriora mirari, praesentia sequi’. 2 Even among the nobiles there can have been few genuine Republicans in th

been few genuine Republicans in the time of Augustus; and many of the nobiles were inextricably bound up with the New State, be

e political dissensions of the last age of the Republic. Few were the nobiles who passed unscathed through these trials, from c

himself more and more from the control of his earlier partisans; the nobiles returned to prominence and the Caesarian party it

0, 349 ff., 419 ff., 473 ff. (see also Clientela); relations with the nobiles , 238 f., 291, 328, 368, 372 f., 376 ff., 382, 404

ghter marries the son of Taurus, 379. Cornelius Sisenna, two Augustan nobiles of this name, 377. Cornelius Sulla, Faustus, so

18; cult of, in the Principate, 471. Dolabella, see Cornelius. Domi nobiles , 82, 89; see also Municipia. Dominatio, 155, 418,

Sabine country, 83. Vespasian, the Emperor, 386, 415, 455; and the nobiles , 504; origin and ancestors, 83, 354, 561. Vespa

ath, 391; character, 341, 343 f; Republicanism, 343, 413; disliked by nobiles , 344; hates Maecenas, 341; relations with Tiberiu