Pulsi maiorum loco ? A Reconsideration of the Patriciate 218-49 B.C.

Abstract

The following thesis is an examination of the political and religious role of the patriciate in the Roman state in the period from Hannibalic War to the fall of the Republic (218-49 B.C.). More specifically, of the extent to which the role of the patriciate was maintained or eroded. The first chapter is devoted to a study of the special patrician affinity with the auspices and the unique place the patriciate occupied in the Republican constitution as a consequence. The next three chapters focus on the record of the patriciate in high political office in the period 218-49 B.C.. Chapters II and III discuss patrician representation in the consulship and censorship and explore the causes of the advent and proliferation of all-plebeian consular and censorial colleges in the Second and First Centuries. Chapter IV is an inquiry into the date at which the practice of alternation between the orders in the curule aedileship ceased and an analysis of the ramifications of the end of alternation for the patriciate. Chapter V looks at the patrician monopoly of the post of princeps senatus - the significance of the institution and a reassessment of its fate in the First Century. Chapter VI investigates the practice of succession in the three major priestly colleges and the perpetuation of a balance of the orders in the colleges till the end of the Republic. In Appendix I it is argued, contra Mommsen, that testamentary adoption was never equivalent to posthumous adrogation and that the patrician status of P.Cornelius Scipio Nasica was unaffected by his testamentary adoption by Metellus Pius. Appendix II consists of the fasti aedilicii for the years 217-49 and statistical comparisons of the curule and plebeian aedileship. Appendix III is a list of the principes senatus of the Republic and a review of the insubstantial evidence for plebeian principes senatus. Appendix IV is a reconsideration of Mommsen’s identification of the gentes maiores and his thesis that the gentes maiores enjoyed a monopoly of the post of princeps senatus. Appendix V is a refutation of Mommsen’s and Willems’ contention that patricians were accorded priority on the album senatorium and in senatorial debate. Appendix VI concerns the date of the inauguration of Lentulus Niger as flamen Martialis which has important implications for the history of the flaminate and the post of princeps senatus in the 70’s. Appendix VII is a register of the recorded instances of succession in the three major priestly colleges during the Republic and Triumviral period. Plus a survey of conjectural cases of succession and unsuccessful candidates for priestly office in the period.