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The social hierarchy
Roman society is organised in a strict hierarchy. People can move
from one position on the social scale to another – many slaves, for
example, become freed men and can even rise to positions of great authority
– but no one can ignore the basic divisions.
The people of the empire fall into three principal categories: citizens,
provincials and slaves. Full citizenship is often granted to provincials
en masse as a way of securing their loyalty to Rome. Soldiers from
far-flung corners of the empire are guaranteed full citizen rights (and
land on which to settle) after 25 years' service. Sometimes they earn
it sooner, especially when it is used as a bribe to win their support
in the numerous power struggles that beset Rome.
Senators
At the top of the social hierarchy, of course, is the emperor.
But the Senate, which is made up of wealthy aristocrats and ruled the
Roman Republic before the position of emperor was established, still provides
the leading members of the government. These include consuls, other magistrates
and provincial governors. Originally elected by the citizens of Rome,
by the time of the empire senators are either appointed by the emperor
or inherit their position.
Equestrians
Below the senators are the equites, equestrians or knights
– wealthy citizens who hold many of the senior positions in the army
and civil administration. The equestrians (so called because they were
originally citizens who served the army on horseback) can become senators
– as the orator Cicero and the general Marius do in the latter years
of the Republic. The equestrians' increasing importance and influence
during the empire means that the distinction between them and the senators
gradually blurs – although there is still often a great deal of snobbery
about people who arrive at positions of power without belonging to one
of the principal aristocratic families.
Plebeians and slaves
Next come the plebeians, including up to 200,000 citizens among
the urban poor who are dependent on the emperor's 'dole' of free corn
(see below). They are often referred to as
the 'mob'. Slaves, meanwhile, range from those who can expect only a short,
brutal life (many thousands die in the mines) to those who are better
off than all but the highest free classes. A number of routes out of slavery
are also available to fortunate slaves. For instance, ex-slaves of the
emperors virtually run the civil service, while gladiators, most of whom
are slaves, can earn their freedom by performing well in the arena.
Various emperors improve the position of slaves. Claudius decrees that
any master who leaves a sick slave to die will be tried for murder. And
Hadrian abolishes a slave-owner's power of life and death by ruling that
only a magistrate should be able to sentence a slave to death.
Bread and circuses
'The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and
all else now ... long eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses.'
Juvenal
Social class determines even the kind of bread that people eat in Rome.
There are three varieties: 'plebeian' black bread, made from barely sifted
flour; 'second', made from slightly refined flour; and 'white', eaten
only by the rich.
The annona, or annual supply of grain, has
been under state control since the 3rd century BC. Most of it comes from
Egypt, known as the breadbasket of the empire. Augustus, recognising its
importance, made sure that supplies are under the personal control of
the emperor. It is distributed free of charge to the urban masses –
a dole that could only be withdrawn at the risk of reviving the sorts
of bread riots that used to afflict Rome regularly during the Republic.
As well as bread, the Romans insist on circuses. Huge resources are devoted
to triumphs and games, great spectacles that are often accompanied by
great slaughter – of both animals and people. (See Arts.)
The guilds
There are at least 125 guilds in existence in the early empire, with
varying degrees of monopoly over particular crafts or trades. These range
from carpenters and potters to poets and pimps, and also include physicians,
ironsmiths, tanners, coppersmiths, cabinet-makers, scholars, tailors,
barbers and traders in spices, textiles and pearls.
But as few as one-tenth of the artisans in imperial Rome are of free
birth. A large proportion are freed men still dependent upon the patronage
of their former masters. Free artisans must, in any case, compete for
work with slaves, with the result that unemployment among their number
is often high.
Paterfamilias
The head of the Roman family is the paterfamilias, the
father of the family. He possesses the patria potestas, or power
of a father, over his wife and children, even as adults. For example,
the paterfamilias owns any property acquired by his sons and has
the right to sell his children into slavery. Although divorce is a straightforward
affair, the paterfamilias also has legal authority to kill his
wife if he finds her in bed with another man.
Women
Despite the power of the paterfamilias, the status of women
in the Roman empire is relatively high compared with many other ancient
societies. Although males are the undoubted heads of their households,
women have acquired considerable rights, including control of their own
property, and they are also able to divorce their husbands. There are
many examples of females wielding exceptional power, authority and influence.
Not until the coming of Christianity, when marriage becomes a holy sacrament
rather than a loose contract, does the male stand totally supreme.
Marriage and divorce
The legal age for marriage in Rome is 12, but as many as one in five
girls are already married off or living with their future husbands by
this age. Divorce, however, is relatively easy to obtain; marriages can
simply be dissolved by mutual consent. Indeed, many of Rome's most famous
citizens have already been married several times by the time they reach
their 20s.
Titles
Roman society is very keen on titles, never more so than in the case
of its emperors. The full title of the emperor Trajan, for example, is
Imperator Caesar Divi Nervae Filius Nerva Traianus Optimus Augustus Germanicus
Dacicus Parthicus, Pontifex maximus, Tribuniciae potestatis XXI, Imperator
XIII, Consul VI, Pater Patriae – but you can probably get by if you
bow humbly in his presence.
Beards
Hadrian (AD 117-138) is the first Roman emperor to wear a beard, setting
a fashion that is followed by his successors. It's said that, in his case,
he uses his beard to cover up facial blemishes, but it's as likely to
be due to his love affair with the Greek world. Either way, no fashionable
Roman will be seen without a carefully clipped beard in the mid-2nd century
AD. Beards get gradually longer over the next hundred years, until stubbly
beards and short cropped hair come into fashion around AD 230.
Women's hairstyles and marble wigs
'Easier to count an oak's acorns than the new hair styles in a day,'
says the poet Ovid, writing during the reign of Augustus. Indeed, keeping
up with the latest in hair fashion becomes such an obsession at times
among upper-class Roman women that sculptors are compelled to devise marble
wigs – so that statues, too, can be updated regularly as the styles
change.
Find out more
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