Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The patricians (from Latin: patricius) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom and the early Republic , but its relevance waned after the Conflict of the Orders (494 BC to 287 BC).
Traditionally, patrician refers to members of the upper class, while plebeian refers to lower class. [2] Economic differentiation saw a small number of families accumulate most of the wealth in Rome, thus giving way to the creation of the patrician and plebeian classes. [2]
Both patricius, 'patrician', and patronus are related to the Latin word pater, 'father', in this sense symbolically, indicating the patriarchal nature of Roman society. Although other societies have similar systems, the patronus–cliens relationship was "peculiarly congenial" to Roman politics and the sense of familia in the Roman Republic ...
The Conflict of the Orders or the Struggle of the Orders was a political struggle between the plebeians (commoners) and patricians (aristocrats) of the ancient Roman Republic lasting from 500 BC to 287 BC in which the plebeians sought political equality with the patricians.
The patricians, as a closed hereditary caste, steadily diminished in numbers over the centuries, as families died out. Around 450 BC, there are some 50 patrician gentes (clans) recorded, whereas just 14 remained at the time of Julius Caesar (dictator of Rome 48–44 BC), whose own Iulii clan was patrician.
Patrician may refer to: Patrician (ancient Rome) , the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage Patrician (post-Roman Europe) , the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval and Early Modern Europe
The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italia during the period of the Roman Republic. Much of individuals' social standing depended on the gens to which they belonged. Certain gentes were classified as patrician, others as plebeian; some had both patrician and plebeian branches
He had a duty to father and raise healthy children as future citizens of Rome, to maintain the moral propriety and well-being of his household, to honour his clan and ancestral gods and to dutifully participate—and if possible, serve—in Rome's political, religious and social life. In effect, the pater familias was expected to be a good citizen.