Power and Privilege in Roman Society

How far were appointments in the Roman Empire based on merit? Did experience matter? What difference did social rank make? This innovative study of the Principate examines the career outcomes of senators and knights by social category. Contrasting patterns emerge from a new database of senatorial careers. Although the highest appointments could reflect experience, a clear preference for the more aristocratic senators is also seen. Bias is visible even in the major army commands and in the most senior civilian posts nominally filled by ballot. In equestrian appointments, successes by the less experienced again suggest the power of social advantage. Senatorial recruitment gradually opened up to include many provincials but Italians still kept their hold on the higher social groupings. The book also considers the senatorial career more widely, while a final section examines slave careers and the phenomenon of voluntary slavery.

Part I. Social Status and Senatorial Success: 1. Introduction: the senator; 2. Social standing and its impact on careers; 3. The career ladder at Rome; 4. Service overseas; 5. Defenders of the empire; 6. Influx from the provinces; 7. The chronology of the senatorial evidence; 8. Career inscriptions and what they leave out; Part II. Equestrian Perspectives: 9. Defining the equites; 10. The public employment of equites; 11. The economic involvements of equites; 12. The devaluation of equestrian rank; Part III. The Unprivileged: 13. Slavery: the background; 14. Slavery as a career; Appendixes: Appendix 1. Scoring systems for senators; Appendix 2. Non-vigintiviri and additional senators; Appendix 3. The duration of army posts; Appendix 4. Details of vigintiviri; Appendix 5. Some senatorial careers; Appendix 6. Early and late priesthoods; Appendix 7. Inventory of senators in the database.

Richard Duncan-Jones is a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and has also been a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He has published widely on Roman social and economic history. His previous books published by Cambridge University Press are The Economy of the Roman Empire, 2nd edition (1982), Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy (1990) and Money and Government in the Roman Empire (1994). He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 1992.