Who Were the Nobility of the Roman Empire

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3940045
AutoresT D Barnes (autor de correspondencia)
Año1974
Volumen28
Número4
Páginas444
Fecha de publicación1974-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPhoenix (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883
EditorialJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1087548
OpenAlexW2323753140
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas41

IN 1912 MATTHIAS GELZER proved that the contemporaries of Cicero reserved the term nobilis to denote strictly and solely consular rank and descent from a consul, and this demonstration has provided the basis for most subsequent study of the social structure of the Roman Republic.1 Three years later, Gelzer attempted a similar definition for the imperial period, which was far less conducive to understanding and, unfortunately, almost influential.2 As recently 1969, when both studies were published in an English version, the translator was bold enough to assert that, despite minor difficulties, as long there is no unquestionable instance where nobilitas is ascribed to a man descended from a consular of the triumviral period or later, it seems better to accept Gelzer's view, viz., that under the Roman Empire the term nobilis was restricted to the descendants of Republican consuls.3 A single passage, overlooked by Gelzer and his translator, provides conclusive refutation.4 Tacitus makes the freedmen of Claudius describe C. Silius, the lover of Messalina, iuvenem nobilem (iAnn. 11.28.3). The first consul in the family was P. Silius Nerva, cos. ord. 20 B.c., and the unfortunate C. Silius (consul designate when he died in 48) appears to be his grandson in the direct line.5 Moreover, on the most natural interpretation, other passages in Tacitus and other writers of the early imperial period clearly state or imply that nobilitas could still be created or acquired both under Augustus and under his successors.6 The present brief

Ancient history · Art · Empire · Nobility · Political science · Roman Empire · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Literary Studies · History