The Freedman's Son in Municipal Life

Abstract

Tacitus declares in a well-known passage that a large proportion of the nobility of the Roman Empire was descended from freedmen. The assertion, if true, is of great historical importance; indeed, it has recently been maintained that the penetration of Roman society by men of servile descent was one of the chief causes of the decline and fall of the Empire. Such an introduction of fresh blood from below is not in itself unusual or undesirable. What made it without parallel in the case of Rome was that this new blood was derived from foreigners and slaves. But the statement of Tacitus may be a rhetorical exaggeration, especially for the reign of Nero to which he ascribes it. We can to some extent test its truth by a study of the inscriptions relating to the lesser aristocracy of the Italian towns, since it was from this that the senatorial and equestrian orders were largely recruited, while in these small communities humble origin was less carefully and less easily concealed. The present discussion is based upon a collection of more than a thousand such inscriptions, which record the names of town-councillors and holders of municipal offices, including priesthoods other than those open to freedmen. The parts of Italy from which they are taken display the greatest diversity of local conditions.

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