Historical sources on ancient Roman society

"When the plebeians became a distinct class of citizens, who shared certain rights with the patricians, the latter lost in so far as these rights no longer belonged to them exclusively. But by far the greater number of rights, and those the most important ones, still remained in the exclusive possession of the patricians, who alone were cives optimo jure [citizens with the fullest rights], and were the patres [fathers] of the nation in the same sense as before. All civil and religious offices were in their possession, and they continued as before to be the populus [people], the nation now consisting of the populus and the plebes [common people]. This distinction, which Livy found in ancient documents (XXV.12), seems however in the course of time to have fallen into oblivion, so that the historian seems to be hardly aware of it, and uses populus for the whole body of citizens including the plebeians. Under the Antonines the term populus signified all the citizens, with the exception of the patricii (Gaius, I.3)." 

Contextual information:

Leonhard Schmitz was a German-born classical scholar who settled in Britain and contributed extensively to William Smith's reference works on the ancient world. This article on the Roman patricians appeared in Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, first published in 1842 and revised in 1875, which drew on ancient authors such as Livy, Cicero, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Gaius. 

Bibliographical reference:

Schmitz, L. (1875). Patricii. In W. Smith (Ed.), A dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (pp. 875–878). John Murray. 

Copyright: Public domain. 

Extract A:

"The Roman Equites were originally the horse-soldiers of the Roman state, and did not form a distinct class or ordo [order or class] in the commonwealth till the time of the Gracchi. Their institution is attributed to Romulus, who caused 300 equites, divided into three centuries [groups of one hundred], to be elected by the curiae [assemblies]." 

Extract B:

"From the year B.C. 403, there were therefore two classes of Roman knights: one who received horses from the state, and are therefore frequently called equites equo publico [knights with a horse paid for by the state] … and another class, who served, when they were required, with their own horses, but were not classed among the 18 centuries. As they served on horseback they were called equites; and, when spoken of in opposition to cavalry, which did not consist of Roman citizens, they were also called equites Romani; but they had no legal claim to the name of equites, since in ancient times this title was strictly confined to those who received horses from the state." 

Contextual information:

This unsigned article appeared in William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, a standard Victorian-era reference work on classical civilisation. It drew on primary sources including Livy, Cicero's De Republica, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Pliny the Elder to describe how the equestrian order developed from the earliest cavalry forces of Rome into a distinct social class during the late Republic. 

Bibliographical reference:

Equites. (1875). In W. Smith (Ed.), A dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (pp. 471–472). John Murray.  

Copyright: Public domain.

Extract A:

"Some members of a political community (cives [citizens]) may have more political rights than others; a principle by the aid of which Savigny (Geschichte des Röm. Rechts im Mittelalter, c. ii p22) has expressed briefly and clearly the distinction between the two great classes of Roman citizens under the republic:— 'In the free republic there were two classes of Roman citizens, one that had, and another that had not, a share in the sovereign power (optimo jure, non optimo jure cives). That which particularly distinguished the higher class was the right to vote in a tribe, and the capacity for enjoying magistracies [public offices] (suffragium [right to vote] et honores [right to hold public offices]).'" 

Extract B:

"In the year B.C. 366, when Licinius and Sextius had been elected Tribuni [tribunes] for the tenth time, the law was passed as to the Decemviri [a board of ten officials], and five plebeians and five patricians were elected, a measure which prepared the way for the plebeians participating in the honours of the consulship. The Rogationes [proposed laws] of Licinius were finally carried, and in the year B.C. 365 L. Sextius was elected consul, being the first Plebeian who attained that dignity." 

Extract C:

"MANUMISSIO was the form by which slaves and persons In Mancipii causa were released from those conditions respectively. There were three modes of effecting a Justa et Legitima Manumissio [a just and lawful freeing], namely, Vindicta [a formal court ceremony with a rod], Census [registration as a citizen during the census], and Testamentum [a will or testament], which are enumerated both by Gaius and Ulpian (Frag. I) as existing in their time." 

Extract D:

"The ceremony of the Manumissio by the Vindicta was as follows:— The master brought his slave before the magistratus [a Roman official], and stated the grounds (causa) of the intended manumission. The lictor [an officer who attended a magistrate] of the magistratus laid a rod (festuca) on the head of the slave, accompanied with certain formal words, in which he declared that he was a free man ex Jure Quiritium [by the law of Roman citizens] … The master in the meantime held the slave, and after he had pronounced the words 'hunc hominem liberum volo' ['I wish this man to be free'], he turned him round and let him go (emisit e manu, or misit manu), whence the general name of the act of manumission." 

Extract E:

"PATRIA POTESTAS. Potestas [power] signifies generally a power or faculty of any kind by which we do any thing. 'Potestas,' says Paulus (Dig. 50 tit. 16 s215), 'has several significations: when applied to Magistratus [magistrates], it is Imperium [supreme command]; in the case of Children, it is the Patria Potestas [father's power]; in the case of Slaves, it is Dominium [ownership].’ ... It was a condition of the Patria Potestas that the child should be begotten in matrimonium legitimum [a legal marriage] (Gaius, I.55–107; Inst. 1 9–11).” 

Contextual information:

George Long was a British classical scholar and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who contributed widely to Smith's dictionary. This article on Roman citizenship drew on the work of the influential German legal historian Friedrich Carl von Savigny, as well as primary sources including Livy, Cicero, Gaius and Ulpian, to explain the various levels of citizenship that existed in the Roman Republic and Empire. 

Bibliographical reference:

Long, G. (1875). In W. Smith (Ed.), A dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (pp. 291–293, 693–694, 730–731, 873–875). John Murray. 

Copyright: Public domain.

"All priestly offices or sacerdotia [priesthoods] were held for life without responsibility to any civil magistrate. A priest was generally allowed to hold any other civil or military office besides his priestly dignity (Liv. XXXVIII.47, XXXIX.45; Epit. 19, XL.45, Epit. 59, &c.); some priests however formed an exception, for the duumviri [a two-man board], the rex sacrorum [king of sacred rites] and the flamen dialis [priest of Jupiter] were not allowed to hold any state office, and were also exempt from service in the armies (Dionys. IV.8)." 

Contextual information:

Leonhard Schmitz wrote this article on Roman priesthoods for Smith's dictionary, drawing on the ancient historians Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The article describes the various categories of Roman priests, the rules governing their appointment and removal, and the relationship between religious and civil authority in the Roman state. 

Bibliographical reference:

Schmitz, L. (1875). Sacerdos. In W. Smith (Ed.), A dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (pp. 997–998). John Murray. 

Copyright: Public domain.

"But whatever difference of opinion might subsist between the Orthodox, the Ebionites, and the Gnostics, concerning the divinity or the obligation of the Mosaic law, they were all equally animated by the same exclusive zeal [strong belief that allowed no other gods], and by the same abhorrence for idolatry [strong rejection of idol-worship], which had distinguished the Jews from the other nations of the ancient world. The philosopher, who considered the system of polytheism [belief in many gods] as a composition of human fraud and error, could disguise a smile of contempt under the mask of devotion, without apprehending that either the mockery or the compliance would expose him to the resentment of any invisible, or, as he conceived them, imaginary powers. But the established religions of Paganism were seen by the primitive Christians in a much more odious and formidable light. It was the universal sentiment both of the church and of heretics, that the daemons were the authors, the patrons, and the objects of idolatry." 

Contextual information:

Edward Gibbon was a British historian whose six-volume The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1789) is one of the most influential works of modern historical writing. Chapter 15, from which this passage is drawn, examines the rise of Christianity within the Roman world and the ways in which early Christian beliefs clashed with the polytheistic religious traditions that had characterised Roman society. 

Bibliographical reference:

Gibbon, E. (1776). The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire (Vol. I, Ch. 15). W. Strahan and T. Cadell. 

Copyright: Public domain.

Extract A (Title IX: Of Paternal Power):

"Our children whom we have begotten in lawful wedlock are in our power. … The power which we have over our children is peculiar to Roman citizens, and is found in no other nation. The offspring then of you and your wife is in your power, and so too is that of your son and his wife, that is to say, your grandson and granddaughter, and so on. But the offspring of your daughter is not in your power, but in that of its own father." 

Extract B (Title X: Of Marriage):

"Roman citizens are joined together in lawful wedlock when they are united according to law, the man having reached years of puberty, and the woman being of a marriageable age, whether they be independent or dependent: provided that, in the latter case, they must have the consent of the parents in whose power they respectively are, the necessity of which, and even of its being given before the marriage takes place, is recognised no less by natural reason than by law." 

Contextual information:

The Institutes of Justinian is a legal textbook compiled in 533 AD on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, as part of his massive codification of Roman law known as the Corpus Iuris Civilis. The work was intended as an introductory textbook for law students and drew heavily on the earlier Institutes of the second-century jurist Gaius. This translation by J.B. Moyle, first published in 1883 and revised to a fifth edition in 1913, was a standard English-language edition used in British and Commonwealth universities. 

Bibliographical reference:

Justinian. The Institutes of Justinian (J. B. Moyle, Trans., 1913; 5th ed., Bk. I, Tit. IX–X). Clarendon Press. (Original work published 533 CE).  

Copyright: Public domain.