Thus the
citizens constituted an aristocracy amidst the other inhabitants of
the city. But they were not equal among themselves; there were class
differences, or, as the Romans said, ranks.
=The Nobles.=--In the first rank are the nobles. A citizen is noble
when one of his ancestors has held a magistracy, for the magisterial
office in Rome is an honor, it ennobles the occupant and also his
posterity.
When a citizen becomes aedile, praetor, or consul, he receives a
purple-bordered toga, a sort of throne (the curule chair), and the
right of having an image made of himself. These images are statuettes,
at first in wax, later in silver. They are placed in the atrium, the
sanctuary of the house, near the hearth and the gods of the family;
there they stand in niches like idols, venerated by posterity. When
any one of the family dies, the images are brought forth and carried
in the funeral procession, and a relative pronounces the oration for
the dead. It is these images that ennoble a family that preserves
them. The more images there are in a family, the nobler it is. The
Romans spoke of those who were "noble by one image" and those who were
"noble by many images.
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