patricians
patriciansformed a privileged class of Roman citizens. The word is probably connected with patres (‘Fathers’), a formal collective term for patrician senators (see senate). In the republican period patrician status could be obtained only by birth; and it may be surmised that in early times both parents had to be patricians, if the law of the Twelve Tables which stated that patricians could not legally marry plebeians (see plebs) was a codification of long-established practice rather than an innovation by the Decemviri; this law was repealed by Gaius Canuleius in 445 BC. It is also possible, but not certain, that patrician marriages had to be by confarreatio (a special ceremony which took its name from a sacrificial loaf).
The origin of the patriciate is disputed. Tradition made it the creation of Romulus, but also suggested that it was...
[The entire page is 886 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
