When do you think the importance of the patricians declined? Relatively and absolutely? And do you think it was because of inevitable changes in state and society? Or because of their own failures to maintain their standing and power?
I recall from a long ago University seminar on the Roman Republic that a major legal change, sometimes dated to 444 BC, but more often credited to the Sexto-Licenian Lex of 368BC permitted plebeians to marry patricians, as well as to hold the chief magistracy of the Republic, which would automatically admit them to the Senate.
At that point the word “nobiles” came in to use to describe an aristocracy of poor or dying out patrician families marrying rich and/or militarily accomplished plebeian families so that their children would have the best of both worlds. Like an impoverished late medieval Earl or Duke marrying his daughter to a prominent merchant or successful mercenary Captain in order to lift the families fortunes.
Caesar was a good example, claiming the Gens of both an ancient Patrician--the Julii--as well as descending from plebeian nobility.
Was this a mistake? The American historian writing about the Republic has tended to view plebeian enfranchisement and intermarriage as a key method of bringing talented new men into the oligarchy but older writers of the classical and medieval period viewed it as soiling the blood of the patricians and offending their religious rituals.
I’d love your view on that. Btw, big time fan/reader; first time commenter.
A series of social struggles saw the plebs secede from the city on three occasions, the last in 297 BC, until their demands were met. They won the right to stand for office, the abolition of the intermarriage law, and the creation of office of tribune of the plebs.
This office, founded in 494 BC as a result of a plebeian secession, was the main legal bulwark against the powers of the patrician class, and only plebeians were eligible. The tribunes originally had the power to protect any plebeian from a patrician magistrate.
Later revolts forced the Senate to grant the tribunes additional powers, such as the right to veto legislation. A tribune's person was sacrosanct, and he was obliged to keep an open house at all times while in office. Some patricians, notably Clodius Pulcher in the late 60s BC, petitioned to be assigned plebeian status, in order to accumulate the political influence among the people that the office of tribune afforded.
The conflict between the classes came to a climax in 287 BC when patricians and plebeians were declared equal under the law.
Following these changes the distinction between patrician and plebeian status became less important, and by the Late Republic the only patrician prerogatives were a few priesthoods.
Over time, some patrician families declined, some plebeian families rose in status, and the composition of the ruling class changed. A plebeian who was the first of his line to become consul was known as a novus homo ("new man"), and he and his descendants became "noble" (nobiles). Notable examples of novi homines are the seven-time consul Marius, and Cicero, whose rise was unusual in that it was driven by his oratorical and intellectual abilities rather than, as with Marius, military success. During the Empire, patricius became a title of nobility bestowed by emperors. https://www.crystalinks.com/romeclasstructure.html
When do you think the importance of the patricians declined? Relatively and absolutely? And do you think it was because of inevitable changes in state and society? Or because of their own failures to maintain their standing and power?
I recall from a long ago University seminar on the Roman Republic that a major legal change, sometimes dated to 444 BC, but more often credited to the Sexto-Licenian Lex of 368BC permitted plebeians to marry patricians, as well as to hold the chief magistracy of the Republic, which would automatically admit them to the Senate.
At that point the word “nobiles” came in to use to describe an aristocracy of poor or dying out patrician families marrying rich and/or militarily accomplished plebeian families so that their children would have the best of both worlds. Like an impoverished late medieval Earl or Duke marrying his daughter to a prominent merchant or successful mercenary Captain in order to lift the families fortunes.
Caesar was a good example, claiming the Gens of both an ancient Patrician--the Julii--as well as descending from plebeian nobility.
Was this a mistake? The American historian writing about the Republic has tended to view plebeian enfranchisement and intermarriage as a key method of bringing talented new men into the oligarchy but older writers of the classical and medieval period viewed it as soiling the blood of the patricians and offending their religious rituals.
I’d love your view on that. Btw, big time fan/reader; first time commenter.
A series of social struggles saw the plebs secede from the city on three occasions, the last in 297 BC, until their demands were met. They won the right to stand for office, the abolition of the intermarriage law, and the creation of office of tribune of the plebs.
This office, founded in 494 BC as a result of a plebeian secession, was the main legal bulwark against the powers of the patrician class, and only plebeians were eligible. The tribunes originally had the power to protect any plebeian from a patrician magistrate.
Later revolts forced the Senate to grant the tribunes additional powers, such as the right to veto legislation. A tribune's person was sacrosanct, and he was obliged to keep an open house at all times while in office. Some patricians, notably Clodius Pulcher in the late 60s BC, petitioned to be assigned plebeian status, in order to accumulate the political influence among the people that the office of tribune afforded.
The conflict between the classes came to a climax in 287 BC when patricians and plebeians were declared equal under the law.
Following these changes the distinction between patrician and plebeian status became less important, and by the Late Republic the only patrician prerogatives were a few priesthoods.
Over time, some patrician families declined, some plebeian families rose in status, and the composition of the ruling class changed. A plebeian who was the first of his line to become consul was known as a novus homo ("new man"), and he and his descendants became "noble" (nobiles). Notable examples of novi homines are the seven-time consul Marius, and Cicero, whose rise was unusual in that it was driven by his oratorical and intellectual abilities rather than, as with Marius, military success. During the Empire, patricius became a title of nobility bestowed by emperors. https://www.crystalinks.com/romeclasstructure.html