Nobiles

During the Roman Republic, nobilis ("noble," plural nobiles) was a descriptive term of social rank, usually indicating that a member of the family had achieved the consulship. Those who belonged to the hereditary patrician families were noble, but plebeians whose ancestors were consuls were also considered nobiles. The transition to nobilitas thus required the rise of an exceptional individual, who was considered a "new man" (novus homo). Two of the most famous examples of these self-made "new men" were Gaius Marius, who held the consulship seven times, and Marcus Tullius Cicero.

Scholarly attempts to define nobilitas have led to debates over the particulars of its usage in ancient sources. Fergus Millar points out that nobilis was a descriptive word as used in the Late Republic, and not a technical term for a restricted social group in the sense of peerage. Matthias Gelzer^[1] held that the term was reserved for descendants of consuls, and therefore reckoned that Munatius Plancus, consul designate for 42,^[2] was the last man to qualify as an ancestor for a nobilis.^[3] P.A. Brunt,^[4] building on the view of Theodor Mommsen, assembled evidence of broader usage that suggests any curule office might grant the aura of nobilitas. The term is not found in the literature of the mid-Republic.^[5]

The meaning of nobilis evolved during the Imperial period. In the usage of Tacitus and Pliny Minor,^[6] a nobilis is a descendant of the Republican aristocracy. Women who descended from Augustan consuls are also regarded as belonging to the Roman nobility. During the time of Augustus, a nobilis enjoyed easier access to the consulship, with a lowered age requirement perhaps set at 32.^[7]

References

Further reading

• Barnes, T.D. "Who Were the Nobility of the Roman Empire?" Phoenix 28 (1974) 444–449. On usage of the term in the 4th century.
• Brunt, P.A. "Nobilitas and novitas." Journal of Roman Studies 72 (1982) 1–17.
• Hölkeskamp, Karl-J. "Conquest, Competition and Consensus: Roman Expansion in Italy and the Rise of the nobilitas." Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 42 (1993) 12–39.
• Ridley, R. T. "The Genesis of a Turning-Point: Gelzer's Nobilität." Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 35.4 (1986) 474-502.

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