Its origins lie at the very heart of Roman dynastic politics. […] The dynastic marriage pointed the way. […] In her dynastic policy she ruthlessly employed the three daughters of her second husband, whom she gave in marriage to C. […] For their intermarriage with a dynastic house of Capua c. 217 B.C., Livy 23, 2, 1 ff. […] The governing oligarchy, not least the dynastic houses of the plebeian nobility, had been growing ever closer and more exclusive.