Roman society is largely viewed as hierarchical,
with slaves (servi)
at the bottom, freedmen (liberti)
above them, and free-born citizens (cives) at the top. Free citizens were
also divided by class. The broadest, and earliest, division was between the patricians,
who could trace their ancestry to one of the 100 Patriarchs at
the founding of the city, and the plebeians,
who could not. This became less important in the later Republic, as some
plebeian families became wealthy and entered politics, and some patrician
families fell on hard times. Anyone, patrician or plebeian, who could count a
consul as his ancestor was a noble (nobilis);
a man who was the first of his family to hold the consulship, such as Marius or Cicero,
was known as a novus
homo("new man") and ennobled his descendants. Patrician ancestry,
however, still conferred considerable prestige, and many religious offices
remained restricted to patricians.
A class division originally based on military service became more important.
Membership of these classes was determined periodically by the Censors,
according to property. The wealthiest were the Senatorial class, who dominated
politics and command of the army. Next came theequestrians (equites,
sometimes translated "knights"), originally those who could afford a warhorse,
who formed a powerful mercantile class. Several further classes, originally
based on what military equipment their members could afford, followed, with the proletarii,
citizens who had no property at all, at the bottom. Before the reforms of Marius
they were ineligible for military service and are often described as being just
above freed slaves in wealth and prestige.
Voting power in the Republic was dependent on class. Citizens were enrolled in
voting "tribes", but the tribes of the richer classes had fewer members than the
poorer ones, all the proletarii being
enrolled in a single tribe. Voting was done in class order and stopped as soon
as most of the tribes had been reached, so the poorer classes were often unable
even to cast their votes.
Women shared some basic rights with their male counterparts, but were not fully
regarded as citizens and were thus not allowed to vote or take part in politics.
At the same time the limited rights of women gradually were expanded (due to emancipation)
and women reached freedom from paterfamilias,
gained property rights and even had more juridical rights than their husbands,
but still they had no voting rights and were absent from politics.[167]
Allied foreign cities were often given the Latin
Right, an intermediary level between full citizens and foreigners (peregrini),
which gave their citizens rights under Roman
law and allowed their leading
magistrates to become full Roman citizens. While there were varying degrees of
Latin rights, the main division was between those cum
suffragio ("with vote"; enrolled
in a Roman
tribe and able to take part in
the comitia tributa) and sine
suffragio ("without vote"; could
not take part in Roman politics). Some of Rome's Italian allies were given full
citizenship after the Social
War of 91–88 BC, and full Roman
citizenship was extended to all
free-born men in the Empire byCaracalla in
212.
Family
The basic units of Roman society were households and families.[168]Households
included the head (usually the father) of the household, pater
familias (father of the
family), his wife, children, and other relatives. In the upper classes, slaves
and servants were also part of the household.[168] The
head of the household had great power (patria potestas, "father's power")
over those living with him: He could force marriage (usually for money) and
divorce, sell his children into slavery, claim his dependents' property as his
own, and even had the right to punish or kill family members (though this last
right apparently ceased to be exercised after the 1st century BC).[169]
Patria potestas even extended
over adult sons with their own households: A man was not considered a paterfamilias,
nor could he truly hold property, while his own father lived.[169][170] During
the early period of Rome's history, a daughter, when she married, fell under the
control (manus) of the paterfamilias of
her husband's household, although by the late Republic this fell out of fashion,
as a woman could choose to continue recognizing her father's family as her true
family.[171] However,
as Romans reckoned descent through
the male line, any children she had belonged to her husband's family.[172]
Little affection was shown for the children of Rome. The mother or an elderly
relative often raised both boys and girls. Unwanted children were often sold as
slaves. Children might have waited on tables for the family, but they could not
have participated in the conversation.
In noble families a Greek nurse usually taught the children Latin and Greek.
Their father taught the boys how to swim and ride, although he sometimes hired a
slave to teach them instead. At seven, a boy began his education. Having no
school building, classes were held on a rooftop (if dark, the boy had to carry a
lantern to school). Wax-covered boards were used because paper, papyrus, and
parchment were too expensive—or he could just write in the sand. A loaf of bread
to be eaten was also carried.[173]
Groups of related households formed a family (gens).
Families were based on blood ties or adoption,
but were also political and economic alliances. Especially during the Roman
Republic, some powerful families, or Gentes
Maiores, came to dominate political life.
In ancient Rome, marriage was often regarded more as a financial and political
alliance than as a romantic association, especially in the upper classes (see marriage
in ancient Rome). Fathers usually began seeking husbands for their daughters
when these reached an age between twelve and fourteen. The husband was usually
older than the bride. While upper class girls married very young, there is
evidence that lower class women often married in their late teens or early 20s.
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