position to the Senate. The Equites belonged, it is true, to the same social class as the great bulk of the senators: the cont

ratic demagogues. 2 With the Gracchi all the consequences of empire social , economic and political —broke loose in the Rom

uestrian orders derived, as was fitting, from Picenum men of no great social distinction, the hungry sons of a poor and populo

As the soldiers were the proletariat of Italy, the revolution became social as well as political. The remedy was simple and

eneous in composition at its kernel a small group of men paramount in social distinction, not merely nobiles but patrician; on

. Little had been done to repair the ravages of civil war and promote social regeneration. For that there was sore need, as bo

tator, took the opportunity to sketch a modest programme of moral and social reform. 2 Having written treatises about the Roma

rers, the Caesarian party comprised a formidable array of ability and social distinction. Some senators turn up on Caesar’s si

of his relatives, friends and political associates, varying widely in social distinction nobiles, members of reputable senator

dvancement, military experience was not confined to centurions, their social inferiors the knight C. Volusenus Quadratus serve

54, 5 and, by implication, BC 1, 46, 4. On the whole question of the social standing of centurions at this time, cf. the evid

usered senators. No names are recorded. Yet surmise about origins and social standing may claim validity. The province could b

. The incautious acceptance of partisan opinions about the origin and social status of Caesar’s nominees not only leads to mis

ained loyal to Rome: the propertied classes had good reason to fear a social revolution. Before peace came another civil war s

ected: it is the earliest consuls that convey the visible evidence of social and political revolution. The party of Caesar s

h the designations for the next year, Hirtius and Pansa, the level of social eminence fell a little,1 but was to rise again in

ned of the Caesarian faction after the Ides of March showed a lack of social distinction or active talent. Many of its most

n by mutual interest and by mutual services (officia), either between social equals as an alliance, or from inferior to superi

oerced into action. It showed a lack of personal energy as well as of social distinction. There was no Fabius now of consula

biles, but certain of the more eminent, through family connexions and social influence, had been able to evade proscription, s

ited and thwarted, seized what they regarded as their just portion. A social revolution was now carried out, in two stages, th

nough. After the victory of the Caesarians impended the second act in social revolution. The foundations of the new order we

dmen by purchase, had acquired estates, sometimes with improvement of social standing, actual or in prospect: after the Sicili

r municipia. 1 Hence certain symptoms of consolidation, political and social . There were to be no more proscriptions, no more

from Rome. Contemporaries were pained and afflicted by moral and by social degradation. True merit was not the path to succe

tes in love or politics, would assert the primacy of common sense and social stability. In Rome under the Triumvirs it was m

ouble before or after the contest with Antonius. Rome had witnessed a social revolution, but it had been arrested in time. Aft

nt and dissipated youth in the circle of Clodius. 4 Of this literary, social and political tradition there was also a reminder

. 1 That is an anachronism: the theorists of antiquity situated their social and political Utopias in the past, not in the fut

its imperial dominions and a firm authority to enforce a programme of social and moral regeneration. The constitutional sett

lancus) announced a return to Republican practices and a beginning of social and moral reform. 4 That process was to be celebr

en preserved, despite the inferences plausibly to be derived from the social and moral programme which he was held to have ins

rian to senatorial rank in two or three generations, according to the social system of the Principate; and senators were eligi

d, a path of promotion for the common soldier. Under the military and social hierarchy of the Republic he could rise to the ce

a change, deriving perhaps from purely military needs as well as from social and political causes namely the practice of placi

te. The class of knights, indeed, is the cardinal factor in the whole social , military and political structure of the New Stat

us. This was no commercial upstart, no military careerist rising in social status through service as a centurion. But P. Ovi

gions of the West, these lands gradually invade and capture the whole social and administrative hierarchy in the first century

, but a small-town bourgeois, devoted and insatiable in admiration of social distinction. Caesar and Tiberius, the Julian an

uds and dissensions in the secret oligarchy of government. When the social parvenu and revolutionary adventurer made himself

nary adventurer made himself respectable, his adherents shared in his social ascension. Agrippa’s first wife had been one of t

s own adherents the Princeps bestowed nobility through the consulate, social distinction by advantageous marriages and endowme

preferment will be conferred, not upon the pious and learned, but for social distinction or for political success. From cult a

background, however, stand certain noble houses which, for all their social eminence, do not seem to have been implicated in

ly for a year, was L. Aelius Lamia, a lively old man who enjoyed high social distinction although the first consul in his fami

others was precarious. The wealth needed to support the political and social dignity of a senatorial family imposed a rigorous

es provided an apprenticeship for military service, opportunities for social and political advancement and centres for the pro

vat. ’ PageBook=>453 That there was a certain duplicity in the social programme of the Princeps is evident enough. More

to Roman language Greek theories about primitive virtue and about the social degeneration that comes from wealth and empire. T

leader and sufficient confidence to persist in the task of moral and social regeneration. The political structure created by

Po, a region predominantly Celtic, pays a heavy toll to the army. The social status of the recruit often defies but cannot alw

nities. 2 Rostovtzeff (Soc. and Ec. Hist. 42, cf. 499 f.) rates the social status of the legionary in the time of Augustus f

ing both oligarchy and the power of money, with advocacy of moral and social reform. 2 The Dictator further encouraged the stu

es may be discovered the noblest expression of the Augustan policy of social regeneration and the most illuminating commentary

rnment, no place in history. In town or country there was poverty and social unrest but Rome could not be held directly respon

ence the veterans and the local dynasts would sharply have dealt with social discontent or the propagation of unsound opinions

a disease among literature in both prose and verse, a scourge in the social life of the aristocracy. Messalla vied with Polli

t were T. Labienus and Cassius Severus, neither of whom possessed the social and material advantages that rendered Pollio secu

lls it, ‘iustus sine mendacio candor’. 6 It is lavishly bestowed upon social distinction or political success. Velleius stands

ies issuing from Spain and Narbonensis. They were now dominant in the social and political hierarchy of the Empire, they wore

ted, but a whole class. The contest had been not merely political but social . Sulla, Pompeius and Caesar were all more than me

id not survive the dynasty of the Julii and Claudii, their rivals and social equals. It was fitting that they should all end w

, M. Ulpius Traianus, the son of a consular and therefore a person of social as well as of military distinction. With Trajan,

orians invoke a variety of converging forces or movements, political, social and economic, where antiquity was prone to see on

laudian rulers witnessed a steady and sometimes abrupt decline in the social distinction of the commanders of the Rhine legion

h and power. The nobilis, less obtrusive, might be no better. After a social revolution the primacy of the nobiles was a fraud

careerist. 4 The Republican profession was not so much political as social and moral: it was more often a harmless act of ho

reflected that great oratory is a symptom of decay and disorder, both social and political. Electoral corruption, extortion in

398; proconsul of Asia, 398; praefectus urbi, 404, 436; political and social importance of, 424; connexions, 424, 434, 437, 49

lth of, 12, 14, 135, 380 f.; created by Sulla, 78; by Caesar, 78 ff.; social status of, 80 ff.; Triumviral, 196 ff.; with Octa

e, 10 ff., 352, 365, 510 f., 521; prejudice in, 11, 78, 81, 354, 357; social change, 78 f., 243, 255 f., 351 ff., 455 f., 501

ients of the Princeps, 352 f., 404; virtues of peasant soldiers, 449; social status of, 15, 457 see also Army, Legions. Sosi