Power and Privilege in Roman Society

Abstract

How far were appointments in the Roman Empire based on merit? Did experience matter? What difference did social rank make? This innovative study of the Principate examines the career outcomes of senators and knights by social category. Contrasting patterns emerge from a new database of senatorial careers. Although the highest appointments could reflect experience, a clear preference for the more aristocratic senators is also seen. Bias is visible even in the major army commands and in the most senior civilian posts nominally filled by ballot. In equestrian appointments, successes by the less experienced again suggest the power of social advantage. Senatorial recruitment gradually opened up to include many provincials but Italians still kept their hold on the higher social groupings. The book also considers the senatorial career more widely, while a final section examines slave careers and the phenomenon of voluntary slavery.

The Heredity of Senatorial Status in the Principate

“… 112 Demougin 1988: 225–43 carefully examines the prosopography and function of seuiri. On the place of this honour in the senatorial cursus, see further Eck 1974: 161–3; Demougin 1982: 89–90; Duncan-Jones 2016: 24–5.…”

“… 127 Sherwin-White 1973: 220–90 and Lavan 2016 map the progress of enfranchisement until the Constitutio Antoniniana. Hammond 1957 and Duncan-Jones 2016: 61–72 explore the changing geographical make-up of the early imperial Senate.…”

“… 18 On the tribuni laticlauii , see Campbell 1975: 18–19; on the uigintiuiri , Steiner 1973; Hillebrand 2007; Duncan-Jones 2016: 8–21.…”