me to admit the plebeians to political equality, certain of the great patrician houses, Valerii, Fabii and Cornelii, none the les

ring, namely the nobiles, or descendants of consular houses, whether patrician or plebeian in origin, regarded the supreme magis

hin the patriciate itself, being the so-called gentes maiores. On the patrician gentes, cf. Mommsen, Römische Forschungen I2 (186

aberetur. ’ Compare the remarks of L. Sergius Catilina, a noble and a patrician : ‘quod non dignos homines honore honestatos videb

inally in power. They were able to repel and crush the attempt of the patrician demagogue L. Sergius Catilina to raise a revoluti

reat houses each contributed forty-five consuls, exceeded only by the patrician Cornelii with their numerous branches. Sulla the

Cornelii with their numerous branches. Sulla the Dictator, himself a patrician and a Cornelius, did his best to restore the patr

mestic fertility and a tenacious instinct for survival. Some of the patrician clans like the Furii, whose son Camillus saved Ro

s step-sister, a woman possessed of all the rapacious ambition of the patrician Servilii and ruthless to recapture power for her

and morals, but supremely great in spirit. 1 C. Julius Caesar, of a patrician house newly arisen from long decay, largely by he

ughter of Sulla. 4 Active ambition earned a host of enemies. But this patrician demagogue lacked fear or scruple. Contending agai

tical craft which his ancestor used to break the power of a monarchic patrician family, the Scipiones. Gloria, dignitas and clien

s and alliance with the Lentuli may not unfairly be surmised. 1 The patrician Cornelii Lentuli were noted more for pride of bir

group of men paramount in social distinction, not merely nobiles but patrician ; on the outer fringe, many excellent Roman knight

to supersede it, Marius’ party comprised diverse elements, noble and patrician as well as new men, knights and municipal aristoc

nobiles at that. Most conspicuous of all is the group of nobiles of patrician stock. Caesar, like Sulla, was a patrician and pr

is the group of nobiles of patrician stock. Caesar, like Sulla, was a patrician and proud of it. He boasted before the people tha

he kings of Rome. 2 Patrician and plebeian understood each other. The patrician might recall past favours conferred upon the Roma

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

ulate to his family. 1 Ap. Claudius, the most prominent member of the patrician Claudii, and two branches of the Cornelii, the Sc

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

h had passed over to the plebeians long ago but had not forgotten its patrician origin. P. Servilius was a man of some competence

valued by the governing class, by Caesar as by Brutus. Caesar was a patrician to the core. ‘He was Caesar and he would keep fai

e masters of Rome, but from choice, from gratitude or for profit. The patrician P. Sulla was joined by the nobilis C. Antonius an

y from Faunus and the goddess Vitellia through an ancient and extinct patrician house of the early Republic. 2 Some said that Cic

r from Nursia. 5 Attempts were made to create a senatorial and even a patrician pedigree for certain Octavii. Trouble for nothing

lity. 6 These foreign dynasts were taken up and brought in by certain patrician houses for their own political ends and for Rome’

6). 4 In each of the years 54–49 B.C. One of the two consuls was of patrician extraction: and three of the plebeians were Claud

Q. Fabius Maximus (45) and P. Cornelius Dolabella(cos. suff. 44) were patrician , while P. Servilius Isauricus (48) was ultimately

) were patrician, while P. Servilius Isauricus (48) was ultimately of patrician stock. M. Antonius was plebeian. 7 Namely Q. Fu

is will among the heirs by default. 8 Brutus was a nobilis, Galba a patrician . Yet the opposition to Caesar did not come in the

t the opposition to Caesar did not come in the main from the noble or patrician elements in his party: Antonius from loyalty and

Antonius for loyalty or for capacity. Lepidus was the elder man and a patrician as well. Lepidus retained the position of nominal

Rumours went about in the July days at Rome that Octavianus, though a patrician , had designs upon this office. 1 Nothing came of

e practice of a dissimulation that had been alien to the splendid and patrician nature of Caesar. He soon took the measure of Ant

2. 2 Phil. 13, 29, above, p. 45. 3 Above, p. 94. One of them, the patrician Q. Fabius Maximus (cos. 45 B.C.), had died in off

ilies to attain the consulate. Beside them stand three descendants of patrician houses, Ap. Claudius Pulcher (cos. 38), Paullus A

d Lepidus were not merely noble but of the most ancient nobility, the patrician ; which did not in any way hamper them from follow

only, one Aemilius, partisans of Octavianus; no Fabii at all, of the patrician Cornelii two at the most, perhaps only one; 2 no

ill. Long ago the nobles of Rome, not least the dynastic house of the patrician Claudii, had enhanced their power by inducing men

othed to Octavianus, bravely followed him in death, true to noble and patrician tradition. She was the last person of note in a f

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

war and politics, for they were the direct heirs of one branch of the patrician Claudii, the Nerones. There was closer kin. Oct

ία, cf. Aelian, Varia historia 2, 20. PageBook=>345 Though the patrician Claudii were held to be arrogant, they were the v

but obscured by pretence and by prejudice. The old nobility of Rome, patrician or plebeian, affected to despise knights or munic

er of L. Piso (cos. 58 B.C.) was a business man from Placentia; 4 a patrician Manlius married a woman from Asculum; 5 NotesPa

Prefect of the Guard and Viceroy of Egypt; he married a wife from the patrician family of Cornelius Maluginensis. 3 By birth, Sei

f Cales. P. Sulpicius Quirinius had no connexion with the ancient and patrician house of the Sulpicii he belonged to the municipi

the new Caesarian party comprised diverse elements, the most ancient patrician houses and the most recent of careerists. But thi

march against their patron and imperator. Augustus both created new patrician houses and sought, like Sulla and Caesar before h

ht, like Sulla and Caesar before him, to revive the ancient nobility, patrician or plebeian. Valerii, Claudii, Fabii and Aemilii,

but extinct, numerous Lentuli saved and transmitted the stock of the patrician Cornelii. NotesPage=>376 1 Dio 54, 20, 3;

nnexion: through the marriages of others he subsequently ensnared the patrician houses of the Cornelii Scipiones, the Aemilii Lep

ator of praetorian rank. 2 But Titius secured Paullina, sister of the patrician Fabius Maximus. 3 As for the upstart Quirinius, h

milius Lepidus became a pontifex at the age of twenty-five:1 he was a patrician . The novus homo Cicero had to wait until he becam

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

lius Seianus. Seius, the son of a Terentia, had married a wife from a patrician family. Seianus had brothers, cousins and an uncl

s, Divus Vesp. 3. PageBook=>386 The assiduities of the young patrician Ser. Sulpicius Galba were handsomely rewarded by

na in the place of Augustus. 1 Cinna was one of themselves, noble and patrician at that, and so was Tiberius Augustus had never b

ve had a following among the nobiles. Of the dynastic houses of the patrician nobility now renascent, Aemilii and Fabii stood c

will be recalled that Seius Strabo had a wife from one branch of the patrician Cornelii Lentuli. 1 A powerful coalition of ind

alla had to be content with the anaemic Tibullus. Fabius Maximus, the patrician dilettante, showed some favour to Ovid, and perha

nd the Goddess Rome. 2 Asia is incited by that loyal proconsul, the patrician Paullus Fabius Maximus, to adopt the birthday of

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

to the Principate of Augustus belongs the last consul of the ancient patrician house of the Scipiones. Their name and their maus

iones. Their name and their mausoleum passed to another branch of the patrician Cornelii, the Lentuli, who had also decided for P

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

e country to Rome, settled there with the company of his clients, the patrician house of the Claudii had been an integral part of

sed him the succession. PageBook=>495 Lacking the primeval and patrician distinction of Aemilii and Claudii, the Domitii,

son born to Sex. Appuleius (cos. A.D. 14) and Fabia Numantina. 2 The patrician P. Quinctilius Varus had left a son by Claudia Pu

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

admiral. 2 M. Titius had no known progeny from his alliance with the patrician Fabii; and other novi homines disappear utterly o

of the Flavian age, and M. Ulpius Traianus, the son of another, were patrician into the bargain. Trajan was the first provincial

nian faction or of the four noble houses that supported Pompeius. The patrician Lentuli were numerous, but by no means talented i

rons of Augustan literature, themselves no mean part of it. The Roman patrician and the Italian novus homo alike had salvaged hon

-in-law of Caligula, 494. Aemilius Lepidus, Paullus (cos. 34 B.C.), patrician partisan of Octavianus, 229, 237 f.; completes th

. Pompeius, 189, 227; an Antonian, 268; deserts Antonius, 296; made a patrician , 382; illustrious and ill-fated descendants, 495.

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

East, 429; loyal to Tiberius, 429, 434; his origin, 362; wealth, 381; patrician wives, 379; connexions, 425; lack of offspring, 4