CLAS/HIST 4091/5091 The
Lecture 17. A Study in Contrasts? Aristocrats and Freedmen
I.
Social Order
A. Multiple Divisions:
Free v. Slave / Freeborn v. Freed / Urban v. Rural / Citizen v.
Non-Citizen / Men v. Woman / Adult v. Children
B. Social Strata defined by law: Honestiores (senators, knights, decurions and veterans) v. Humiliores (everyone else)
-Different punishments; legal
privileges; public distributions
II. Aristocrats
A.
Ordo Senatorius
(Senatorial Order):
1. Qualifications: Augustus = 600; 1,000,000 HS; hereditary
2. Old Functions Continue: magistracies of the cursus honorum = quaestor,
praetor, consul (suffect), governor
3. Imperial bureaucratic
functions: Urban prefects; legionary
legates, etc...
B.
Ordo Equester (Equestrian
Order):
1. Qualifications: Eques = knight (pl. equites); 400,000 HS; c. 20,000 in number
2. Not hereditary; Social variation /
lack of cohesion
3. Imperial bureaucratic
functions: Pretorian
Prefects; Prefect of night watch etc...
Tiny
Ruling bureaucracy!
c. 1,000 at a time
C.
Ordo Decurionum (Decurial or Curial order)
1. Qualifications: decurio / curialis = town counsellor; 100 -
150,000; HS 100,000
2. Functions: Local control; philanthropy (liturgies);
intermediary between ruler and ruled
III. Freedmen
A.
Libertus / Liberta (freedman / freedwoman): private
rights
B.
Advantages for all freedmen:
skill; peculium; Trimalchio
(LR 48)
C.
Imperial Freedmen:
Wealth / Scorn
IV. Sociological
Factors
A. Patronage: patron / client; cf. master /
freedman relationship; money, protection, meals, artistic support v. entourage,
support in local politics
Apparent relationship of superiority /
inferiority: Pliny Ep. 2.6
B. Social signification: Clothing / rings; Seating
privileges; Marriage laws; titles (vir clarissimus; vir egregius; vir honestus)
V. Social Mobility
A. Failure of senators to reproduce:
75% tunover; provincialization
-New
Men: Pliny, Tacitus
B. Avenues for Advancement:
Town Councils; Army (Centurions); Sons of freedmen >> Decurions
C.
Emperors: Vespasian; Vitellius;
Pertinax