ABSTRACT
Rome was throughout the empire an ‘estate’ society, that is, there were legal distinctions of status. The aristocratic élite was the senate, which in the first three centuries a.d. had about six hundred members. There was a general expectation that the sons of a senator would also be senators—but there was also the proviso that each member should have property worth at least one million sesterces and be elected to office. In principle election was by the senate, in effect often by the emperor, who also appointed his own nominees. The second estate was the equestrian order (equites), whose minimum property requirement was 400,000 sesterces. The formal method of entry was by imperial grant. A third privileged group consisted of the decurions, in general the top one hundred men of each city. Their wealth varied immensely, as did the size of cities. Below them came the urban plebs and the rural peasantry. Juridically at the bottom came the ex-slaves and the slaves themselves.
