Homo novus was the term in
ancient RomeAncient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
for a man who was the first in his family to serve in the
Roman SenateThe Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
or, more specifically, to be elected as
consulConsul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
. When a man entered public life on an unprecedented scale for a high communal office, then the term used was
novus civis (plural:
novi cives) or "new citizen."
History
According to tradition, both Senate membership and the consulship were restricted to patricians. When plebeians gained the right to this office during the
Conflict of the OrdersThe Conflict of the Orders, also referred to as the Struggle of the Orders, was a political struggle between the Plebeians and Patricians of the ancient Roman Republic, in which the Plebeians sought political equality with the Patricians. It played a major role in the development of the...
, all newly elected plebeians were naturally
novi homines. With time,
novi homines became progressively rarer as some plebeian families became as entrenched in the Senate as their patrician colleagues. By the time of the
First Punic WarThe First Punic War was the first of three wars fought between Ancient Carthage and the Roman Republic. For 23 years, the two powers struggled for supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters but also to a lesser extent in...
, it was already a sensation that
novi homines were elected in two consecutive years (Gaius Fundanius Fundulus in 243 BC and
Gaius Lutatius CatulusGaius Lutatius Catulus was a Roman statesman and naval commander in the First Punic War.He was elected as a consul in 242 BC, a novus homo. During his consulship he supervised the construction of a new Roman fleet. This fleet was funded by donations from wealthy citizens, since the public treasury...
in 242 BC). In 63 BC,
CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
became the first
novus homo in more than thirty years.
In the late
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
period, the distinction between the classes became less important. The consuls came from a new elite, the
nobilesDuring the Roman Republic, nobilis was a descriptive term of social rank, usually indicating that a member of the family had achieved the consulship. Those who belonged to the hereditary patrician families were noble, but plebeians whose ancestors were consuls were also considered nobiles...
(
noblemenNobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
), an artificial
aristocracyAristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
of all who could demonstrate direct descent in the male line from a consul.
List of novi homines
- Lucius Volumnius Flamma Violens
Lucius Volumnius Flamma Violens was a Roman politician, the first consul from a plebeian gens: see novus homo.-Background:According to Roman tradition, membership of the Roman Senate, the city's magistracies, the offices of consul and various religious positions were restricted to patricians...
(elected 307 BC and 296 BC)
- Gaius Duilius
Gaius Duilius was a Roman politician and admiral involved in the First Punic War.Not much is known about his family background or early career, since he was a novus homo, meaning not belonging to a traditional family of Roman aristocrats. He managed, nevertheless, to be elected consul for the year...
(elected 260 BC)
- Gaius Fundanius Fundulus (elected 243 BC)
- Gaius Lutatius Catulus
Gaius Lutatius Catulus was a Roman statesman and naval commander in the First Punic War.He was elected as a consul in 242 BC, a novus homo. During his consulship he supervised the construction of a new Roman fleet. This fleet was funded by donations from wealthy citizens, since the public treasury...
(elected 241 BC)
- Gaius Flaminius
Gaius Flaminius Nepos was a politician and consul of the Roman Republic in the 3rd century BC. He was the greatest popular leader to challenge the authority of the Senate before the Gracchi a century later....
(elected 223 BC and 217 BC)
- Marcus Porcius Cato (the Censor/Elder)
Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman statesman, commonly referred to as Censorius , Sapiens , Priscus , or Major, Cato the Elder, or Cato the Censor, to distinguish him from his great-grandson, Cato the Younger.He came of an ancient Plebeian family who all were noted for some...
(elected 195 BC)
- Lucius Licinius Lucullus
This article is on the Consul of 151 BC. For the descendent see Lucullus, and for others of this name see Licinia .Lucius Licinius Lucullus was a novus homo who became Consul in 151 BC. He was imprisoned by the Tribunes for attempting to enforce a troop levy too harshly...
(elected 151 BC)
- Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...
(elected 107 BC, 104–100 BC, 86 BC)
- Gnaeus Mallius Maximus
Gnaeus Mallius Maximus was a Roman politician and general.He was a novus homo when he was elected to the consulship of the Roman Republic in 105 BC. He drew Gallia Transalpina as his province for the year. He was defeated by Cimbri at the battle of Arausio . He lost his sons in the battle and he...
(elected 105 BC)
- Gaius Coelius Caldus
Gaius Coelius Caldus or Gaius Caelius Caldus was a politician of ancient Rome of the late 2nd and early 1st century BC.In 107 BC, he was a tribune and passed a lex tabellaria, which ordained that in the courts of justice the votes should be given by means of tables in cases of high treason.In 94...
(elected 94 BC)
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
(elected 63 BC)
- Marcus Vinicius
Marcus Vinicius was a Roman consul and a prominent general at the service of the first Roman emperor, Augustus ....
(appointed suffect consul 19 BC)
- Gaius Pomponius Graecinus
Gaius Pomponius Graecinus was a Roman politician who was suffect consul in 16. He was probably a novus homo raised to the Senate by Augustus. He was a friend and patron of the poet Ovid, who addressed three letters of his Epistulae ex Ponto to him c...
(appointed AD 16)
- Gaius Cornelius Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
(appointed AD 97)
Topos of the "New Man"
The literary theme of
Homo novus, or "how the lowly born but inherently worthy man may properly rise to eminence in the world" was the
toposTopos , in Latin locus , referred in the context of classical Greek rhetoric to a standardised method of constructing or treating an argument. See topos in classical rhetoric...
of
SenecaLucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
's influential Epistle XLIV,. At the endpoint of
Late AntiquityLate Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...
, it was likewise a subject in Boethius'
Consolation of PhilosophyConsolation of Philosophy is a philosophical work by Boethius, written around the year 524. It has been described as the single most important and influential work in the West on Medieval and early Renaissance Christianity, and is also the last great Western work that can be called Classical.-...
(iii, vi). In the Middle Ages
DanteDelivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
's
Convivio (book IV) and
PetrarchFrancesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
's
De remediis utriusque fortunae (I.16; II.5) take up the subject, and Chaucer's
Wife of Bath's Tale"The Wife of Bath's Tale" and prologue are among the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. They give insight into the role of women in the Late Middle Ages and are probably of interest to Chaucer himself, for the character is one of his most developed ones, with her prologue twice as...
.
In its Christian renderings, the theme suggested a tension in the
scala naturae or
great chain of beingThe great chain of being , is a Christian concept detailing a strict, religious hierarchical structure of all matter and life, believed to have been decreed by the Christian God.-Divisions:...
, one that was produced through the agency of Man's
free will"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
.
The theme came naturally to
Renaissance humanistsRenaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...
who were often
homines novi rising by their own wits in a network of
noble courtThe court of a monarch, or at some periods an important nobleman, is a term for the extended household and all those who regularly attended on the ruler or central figure...
s that depended on the highly literate new men to run increasingly complicated chancelries and create the cultural propaganda that was a contemporary vehicle for noble fame, and that consequently offered a kind of intellectual
cursus honorumThe cursus honorum was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in both the Roman Republic and the early Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The cursus honorum comprised a mixture of military and political administration posts. Each office had a minimum...
. In the fifteenth century
Buonaccorso da MontemagnoBuonaccorso da Montemagno was the name shared by two Italian scholars from Pistoia in Tuscany. The elder Buonaccorso da Montemagno was a jurisconsult and ambassador who made a compilation of Pistoia's statutes in 1371...
's
Dialogus de vera nobilitate treated of the "true nobility" inherent in the worthy individual; Poggio Bracciolini also wrote at length
De nobilitate, stressing the Renaissance view of human responsibility and effectiveness that are at the heart of Humanism:
sicut virtutis ita et nobilitatis sibi quisque existit auctor et opifex
Briefer summaries of the theme were to be found in
Francesco PatriziFranciscus Patricius was a philosopher and scientist from the Republic of Venice. He was known as a defender of Platonism and an opponent of Aristotelianism...
,
De institutionae republicae (VI.1), and in
Rodrigo Sánchez de ArévaloRodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo was a Spanish churchman, historian and political theorist....
's encyclopedic
Speculum vitae humanae. In the sixteenth century these and new texts came to be widely printed and distributed. Sánchez de Arévalo's
Speculum was first printed at Rome, 1468, and there are more than twenty
fifteenth-century printingsIncunable, or sometimes incunabulum is a book, pamphlet, or broadside, that was printed — not handwritten — before the year 1501 in Europe...
; German, French and Spanish translations were printed. Jerónimo Osório da Fonseca's
De nobilitate (Lisbon 1542, and seven reprintings in the sixteenth century), stressing
propria strennuitas ("one's own determined striving") received an English translation in 1576.
The Roman figure most often cited as an
exemplumAn exemplum is a moral anecdote, brief or extended, real or fictitious, used to illustrate a point.-Exemplary literature:...
is
Gaius MariusGaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...
, whose speech of self-justification was familiar to readers from the set-piece in
SallustGaius Sallustius Crispus, generally known simply as Sallust , a Roman historian, belonged to a well-known plebeian family, and was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines...
's
Bellum Iugurthinum, 85; the most familiar format in the Renaissance treatises is a
dialogueDialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
that contrasts the two sources of nobility, with the evidence weighted in favour of the "new man".
External links
Further reading
- Wiseman, T.P. New Men in the Roman Senate, 139 B.C.-14 A.D ((Oxford Classical and Philosophical Monographs) New York: Oxford University Press) 1971. Wiseman treats the phenomenon in the broader sense, of senators from families of non-senatorial rank, and the political realities.