ABSTRACT

An essential feature of the Roman world is the importance of hierarchies: as there was no strong governmental intervention in daily life, it was essential to fit in to a social group in order to gain assistance from one’s peers and to facilitate patronage connections with those more powerful. The Roman senate and equestrian order were the most powerful groupings, and outside Rome the members of the upper classes, such as town councillors or even tribal chiefs, were assimilated to a similar status. These privileged few – probably less than 0.1 per cent of the population – dominated the vast majority beneath them. Yet all were subject to the power of the emperor. Traditionally, the Roman constitution was believed to be a mixture of the three main types (kingship, oligarchy, and democracy), avoiding the perils of each (1.1). In the empire, however, it is clear that rule by the best man (optimus princeps) dominated other sectors of the community. The imperial system of government served to protect the prestige of the higher ranked, both at Rome and in the provinces (1.2).