Genealogies of Roman Clans and Families

Romulus (as Dionysius and Plutarch write) distributed the entire population into two parts. For those who were most powerful in birth, wealth, influence, and authority, and who excelled in the glory of their deeds, he established as Senators and called Fathers Patres for the sake of honor and virtue. The rest, who were inferior in all these respects, he called Plebeians Plebeios—the former being those who were in need and destitute. He wished the former to administer the republic, hold magistracies, and attend to the auspices and sacred rites; and the latter to till the fields and engage in gainful arts. He wished the former to be patrons, and the latter to be clients.

There are various opinions among the ancients as to why Romulus first called them Patres. For some (like Livy and Plutarch) believe they were called patres because they could name their fathers; others (to whose opinion Dionysius inclines) believe it was because they excelled the others in age and the splendor of their lineage. These, in my opinion, seem to follow the firmer view; yet since this matter has little significance, it does not seem to require too diligent an investigation. For it is clear, even if the cause is unknown, and it is agreed among all, that the one hundred Senators whom Romulus first established for the sake of public council were called patres, and their offspring were called patricians.

In this matter, if we wish to unfold and examine the things that have been recorded for the memory of posterity in the truest and most certain testimonies of the ancients, we will discover that patricians were accustomed to be made first by origin, then by co-optation. By origin, those who trace their origin from the one hundred Senators of Romulus, such as the Junii, Valerii, and Fabii, of whom we have already spoken. By co-optation, however, those who were co-opted into the order of patricians either by other kings, or by a decree of the Senate, or by a law brought before the people. For Numa Marcius was taken into the number of the patricians by King Pompilius; and the Julii, Quinctilii, Servilii, Geganii, and Curiatii by Tullus Hostilius; the Octavii by Servius Tullius. That the co-optation of patricians was also accustomed to be made by a decree of the Senate is witnessed by the Claudia gens, which Livy, Dionysius, and Tacitus testify was taken among the patricians by the Senate when it migrated from the Sabines into the city. By law, however, were those who were elected into the order of patricians by the Junian law under L. Brutus, the Cassian law under Caesar, and the Sentian law under Augustus: of which thing Suetonius is the author, and Tacitus in his eleventh book. "In those same days," he says, "Caesar took into the number of the patricians all the most ancient men from the Senate, or those whose parents were illustrious, with few of the families remaining which Romulus called those of the 'greater gentes' and L. Brutus those of the 'lesser gentes', with those also exhausted which the Dictator under the Cassian law and the princeps Augustus under the Brutian law added." And these are the Patricians, whence the patrician families, and the patricians of the greater and lesser gentes, were named. For those whom Romulus and the other kings chose as patricians up to Tarquinius Priscus (if we follow the opinion of Livy) are called those of the "greater gentes"; those, however, whom Brutus chose after the kings were expelled are called patricians of the "lesser gentes."

Livy names these the Patres Conscripti enrolled fathers in his second book. "Then," he says, "so that the strength of the Senate might be increased by the frequency of the order, he filled the number of the fathers, diminished by the slaughters of the kings, to the sum of three hundred by electing the leaders of the equestrian rank: and it is said that it was handed down from that time that those who were Patres and those who were conscripti should be called into the Senate; for they called those who were elected to the new Senate conscripti." Thus Festus in his third book: "Conscripti were called those who were inscribed from the equestrian order to the fathers, so that the number of Senators might be filled." Therefore, the patricians of the lesser gentes are the Octavii, Claudii, and Papirii: of whom Cicero writes in the ninth book of his Epistles:

"But nevertheless, my Pætus, what came into your mind to deny that any Papirius was ever anything but a plebeian? For there were patricians of the lesser gentes."

The remaining families are plebeian—those indeed cast down and despised in the earliest times; but soon, when marriages, sacred rites, and auspices were shared with the plebeians by those sacred laws; when they obtained axes, the curule chair, and triumphs; they no longer contended with the Fathers for honor, but contended for glory and praise through the greatness of their deeds, the conquest of nations, the storming of cities, and the good and happy administration of the republic, and obtained the highest greatness, the highest dignity, and an immortal memory of their name. A glorious thing, an excellent contest of virtue, which ought to and is accustomed to be of the greatest value in empire and public dignity. For one and the same path to virtue lies open to all: we are all drawn by a desire for praise and are impelled by nature toward glory, nor should we envy those by whom we are provoked to some just and deserved glory. Such were the Licinii, Marcelli, Decii, Metelli, and many others, whose work, industry, and virtue the Roman people used with the greatest praise and even greater advantage, both in peace and in war.