Chapter 10 - Explaining the gens

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The previous chapters have had three objectives: first, to reinstate the curiae properly in the discourse on early Rome, by examining their nature, functions and privileges; second, to examine the nature and privileges of the patriciate, in the context of the Struggle of the Orders; and third, to pose a problem over the apparently fractured and fracturing nature of Roman society, and its surprising cohesion and success. I have laid heavy emphasis on the proclaimed privileges of the patriciate, but have been dubious about the grounds for those privileges. In other words, I have suggested that the patriciate is a fiction of its own making, and claims and counterclaims about it should be seen in terms of an argument, and not as statements of fact. Moreover, it is not clear that the patriciate emerged into the Republican period with these arguments already developed, or that it was successful in maintaining the privileges it claimed in the fifth and fourth centuries. The long history of the military tribunes with consular imperium for instance may reflect a long period of uncertainty over the justification of patriciate control of office.

In terms of the cohesiveness or otherwise of Roman society, the army provides an obvious case-study.