to constitutional history has been severely restricted. Instead, the noble houses of Rome and the principal allies of the va

d. Brutus and Cassius lie damned to this day by the futility of their noble deed and by the failure of their armies at Philip

i pollutus haberetur. ’ Compare the remarks of L. Sergius Catilina, a noble and a patrician: ‘quod non dignos homines honore

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

riously labelled). The wide and remembered ramifications of the Roman noble clan won concentrated support for the rising poli

ilia, Cato’s half-sister, Brutus’ mother and Caesar’s mistress. The noble was a landed proprietor, great or small. But mone

leaders of revolution in Rome were usually impoverished or idealistic nobles , that they found support in the higher ranks of t

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

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

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

h the Metelli. 1 The lust of power, that prime infirmity of the Roman noble , impelled him to devious paths and finally to dan

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

e a rapid decision he would be consul, and to some purpose. The Roman noble , constrained in the pursuit of ambition to adopt

y one. 2 Marriage or adoption might retrieve the waning fortunes of a noble family. The Metelli had employed their women to

rs of the Republic in the East. Sulla had all the ambition of a Roman noble : but it was not his ambition to seize power throu

or accident, from a dreary background. Neutrality was repugnant to a noble and a man of spirit: but kinship might be invoked

either of principle nor of class, the presence of members of the same noble house on opposing sides will be explained not alw

nd wishing to supersede it, Marius’ party comprised diverse elements, noble and patrician as well as new men, knights and mun

fate of Italy was decided in the provinces. In earlier days the Roman noble augmented his power and influence through attachi

r influence a whole region of Italy3 he might be able, like the Roman noble , to levy a private army from tenants and dependen

a little,1 but was to rise again in 42 with two of the marshals, the noble D. Junius Brutus and the novus homo L. Munatius

ician. Yet the opposition to Caesar did not come in the main from the noble or patrician elements in his party: Antonius from

the Dictator. In Caesar’s defiance of the Senate and his triumph over noble adversaries, they too had a share of power and gl

disgraceful, is evident and admitted. He belonged to a class of Roman nobles by no means uncommon under Republic or NotesPag

sert that Antonius felt respect and understanding for Brutus, a Roman noble embodying the virtues of his order and class, and

ies. For the ambitious Octavianus, the gradual advancement of a Roman noble through the consecrated order of magistracies to

o, Ad fam. 10, 31, 2f., quoted above, p. 6. C. Matius made a firm and noble reply to a peevish letter of Cicero, ib. 11, 28,

o find himself assailed, and the traditional contempt which the Roman noble visited upon the family and extraction of respect

ero had descended to that language years before when he explained the noble motives that induced him to waive his hostility a

inst political hostility in civil wars before now when waged by Roman nobles . 3 Lepidus was declared a public enemy on June 30

wances. Regrets there may have been to see a fine soldier and a Roman noble like Antonius reduced to such company and such ex

own mansion, which had cost 3,500,000 sesterces, fell to the Antonian noble L. Marcius Censorinus (Velleius 2, 14, 3). 9 Ap

rom Italy there came sympathizers, among them M. Valerius Messalla, a noble youth of talent and distinction. 8 Three Caesaria

r strengthened by the arrival of miscellaneous Republican or Pompeian nobles , old and young. 1 The Caesarian party, though r

t reviled Octavianus. A number of them were put to death. 5 A body of nobles had fled to the island of Thasos, among them L. C

Caesar; his open ally was Pompeius, in whose company stood a host of noble Romans and respectable knights, the survivors of

tal but delayed advantage prominent Republicans now returned to Rome, nobles of ancient family or municipal aristocrats. Here

d armies for the Dictator, and was the first triumviral consul. 3 The noble Calvinus is a solitary and mysterious figure. It

e consulate at the beginning of 35 B.C.; the upstart Laronius and the noble Messalla had to wait for some years not many. H

ealed to history, Messalla, Ap. Pulcher and Lepidus were not merely noble but of the most ancient nobility, the patrician;

sent to prosecute higher studies at Athens. The arrival of Brutus, a noble , a patriot and a friend of liberal pursuits, arou

, others from ambition. Ahenobarbus with Antonius, Messalla and other nobles in the alliance of Caesar’s heir, had shown the w

of Pompeius. But Catonians and Pompeians do not exhaust the list of nobles in the party of Antonius. The consulars L. Gelliu

vius and a Metellus who defies close identification. 6 The total of noble names is impressive when contrasted with the foll

. It is not quite certain that his adoptive parent was descended from noble Sempronii Atratini. 5 Dio, 51, 2, 5. 6 Crassu

thout sanction. 2 In place of Sosius and Ahenobarbus he appointed two nobles , M. Valerius, a kinsman of Messalla Corvinus, and

ent history, whereas idea and practice were older still. Long ago the nobles of Rome, not least the dynastic house of the patr

been betrothed to Octavianus, bravely followed him in death, true to noble and patrician tradition. She was the last person

e led in a Roman triumph. Her firm and defiant end, worthy of a Roman noble in ferocia, set final consecration on the myth of

ter of constitutional propriety—or rather, impropriety. Crassus was a noble , from a great house, the grandson of a dynast who

sed— few legions for garrison, proconsuls of new families rather than noble , and praetorian rather than consular in rank; and

ight of nominating each year one member of the board of praetors. 2 A noble , but none the less by now a firm member of the Ca

nes at that. Hence the conspicuous lack of legates of Augustus either noble in birth or consular in rank. Not a single nobili

d, Agrippa would make short work of the Princeps’ young nephew. 2 The nobles hated the grim upstart, the ruthless instrument o

ed for Rome’s sake. The service of the State might be described as a ‘ noble servitude’. For Agrippa, his subordination was bu

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

as censors of that town. For a possibility that Lollius was really of noble extraction, adopted by a novus homo, cf. E. Groag

uls of the period 25-19 B.C., eight come of new families against five nobles . 3 The restored Republic, it is evident, meant no

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

n the Principate of Augustus a Sulla, a Metellus, a Scaurus and other nobles did not rise to the consulate. 4 With so few suff

his first wife was an Appia Claudia, daughter of one of the earliest noble supporters of the faction. 4 Then he rose higher

nces. Augustus was ready enough to bestow emolument upon impoverished nobles or meritorious novi homines, enabling them to pre

e claims of birth, influence and patronage had always been paramount. Nobles and above all patricians had a long start. M. Aem

r, which fell to M. Antonius when of quaestorian rank: Antonius was a noble . But Antonius required all Caesar’s influence beh

beside the great soldiers and politicians there was still a place for nobles in their own right, without special or public mer

ers of state and therefore deserve separate and detailed treatment. Noble or upstart, the chief men of the Caesarian party

men now emerge and succeed to the heritage of power and command, both nobles and novi homines. They had hitherto been kept in

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

olized Gaul for many years. It does not follow that the wars waged by nobles or politicians were always futile or disastrous.

e Via Aemilia and Narbonensis by the Domitia recalled the exploits of noble houses; and towns and trophies commemorated the g

p with Cinna in the place of Augustus. 1 Cinna was one of themselves, noble and patrician at that, and so was Tiberius August

nobility, or from none at all. The firmest defenders of Libertas were nobles of the plebeian aristocracy; the senatorial histo

the Cornelii Lentuli, Piso was no enemy of Tiberius. There were other nobles with influential connexions, such as that mild-ma

lices: they were said to be numerous, of every order of society. Five nobles were among them. 1 The consular Iullus Antonius w

of the Claudian house. 5 Tiberius, who honoured, if ever a Republican noble did, the sacred claims of fides, remembered the a

his was a Claudian faction. In the background, however, stand certain noble houses which, for all their social eminence, do n

s to the Lex Papia Poppaea had wife or child. 2 One of them came of a noble Samnite family now reconciled to Rome: it might b

ity, with pride and with resentment, in the towns of Italy. The Roman noble sneered at the municipal man he was priggish and

3 ff. The first high priest was C. Julius Vercondaridubnus, an Aeduan noble (Livy, Per. 139). Note, as fighting for Rome in 1

in, whether he might be a misguided man of the people or a vindictive noble a split in the party itself and dissension betwee

ient of Seianus. Cremutius anticipated conviction by suicide, after a noble speech defending history against oppression and d

eir state in times of civil peace. The Revolution made an end to many noble families old and recent. The dominant figures o

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

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

Pulcher, were put to death for offences against the State. 2 Another noble , a Sempronius Gracchus, was banished and killed i

r Tiberius the splendid prize was spoiled and tarnished. Like a Roman noble , the Claudian had aspired to primacy among his pe

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

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

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

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

the nobiles, the delayed but logical end of Revolution and Empire. Noble birth still brought the consulate as of right, an

bit of drawing between their own ‘industria’ and the ‘inertia’ of the nobles . The true causes lie deeper: as has been shown, t

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

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

Pride and pedigree returned: it masked subservience or futility. The nobles , emergent from threatened extinction in the revol

ver, there remained but little of the Catonian faction or of the four noble houses that supported Pompeius. The patrician Len

ot of the trouble lay in the nature of man, turbid and restless, with noble qualities as well as evil the strife for liberty,

ath of, 430, 432. Aemilius Scaurus, Mam. (cos. suff. under Tiberius), noble birth and vices of, 374; marries Aemilia Lepida,

, 499 f. Calvus, see Licinius. Camillus, 18, 305. Campania, Roman nobles from, 84; Marian and Caesarian partisans, 90 f.,

63; ancient families of Etruria, 82 f.; propertied classes, 89; Roman noble houses of Etruscan origin, 85 f.; Etruscan nomenc