patricii

Patricii, the plural of patricius, referred to the aristocratic class of ancient Rome. The term derives from patres, fathers, and originally designated the founding families who claimed descent from Rome’s earliest senators appointed by Romulus. In the early Republic, patricians monopolized political, religious, and military authority. They supplied most magistrates and dominated the Senate, and they held priestly offices such as the pontifices and flamines, which were limited to patricians.

The contrast with the plebeians—the common people—led to the conflict of the orders. This struggle yielded gradual legal and political reforms that opened high offices to non-patricians, notably with laws such as the Licinian-Sextian laws (367 BCE) allowing plebeians to be elected consul. Over time, many new families entered the patrician rank, and the distinction blurred; the broader social category of nobilitas eventually came to denote elite families, not strictly patrician by birth.

In the late Republic and into the Empire, the practical political power of the patricians waned as magistracies were opened to all free citizens and emperors often governed through personal networks rather than lineage. Nevertheless, patrician status remained a formal designation for certain lineages and carried enduring social prestige in Roman aristocratic culture.

In summary, patricii referred to Rome’s hereditary aristocracy in the Republic’s early period, characterized by exclusive religious and political privileges that were gradually eroded by reform, while patrician families continued to influence Roman politics and society for centuries.