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{{Short description|Social rank of ancient Rome}}
{{Italic title}}
The '''''nobiles''''' ({{singular}} ''nobilis'', {{Translation|'noble', 'noteworthy'}}) were members of a social rank in the [[Roman Republic]] indicating that one was "well known".{{sfn|Brunt|1982|p=11}} This may have changed over time: in [[Cicero]]'s time, one was notable if one descended from a person who had been elected [[Roman consul|consul]].{{sfn|Brunt|1982|p=1}} In earlier periods and more broadly, this may have included a larger group consisting of those who were [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patricians]], were descended from patricians who had become [[plebeians]] via ''transitio ad plebem'', or were descended from plebeians who had held [[Curule seat#Ancient Rome|curule]] offices.<ref>{{harvnb|Brunt|1982|p=1|ps=. The curule offices were those of [[Roman dictator|dictator]], [[magister equitum]], [[Roman censor|censor]], [[consul]], [[praetor]], and [[curule aedile]]}}.</ref>

==History==
The ''nobiles'' emerged after the [[Conflict of the Orders]] established legal equality between patricians and plebeians, allowing plebeians to hold all the [[Roman magistrate|magistracies]]; the state of being "known" was connected to the ''nobiles''{{'}}s rights to funeral masks ({{langx|la|imagines}}) and actors in aristocratic funeral processions.{{sfn|Badian|2012a}} However, the term is largely unattested to in the middle Republic, having been introduced in the late Republic as a description rather than a status.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Millar |first=Fergus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SIJYTTARlJ8C&dq=%22Thirdly%2C+the+much-used+term+%22the+patrician-plebeian+nobility%22%22&pg=PA126 |title=Rome, the Greek World, and the East |date=2002 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-4990-3 |pages=126–27 |language=en}}</ref> Earning such a mask required holding one of the qualifying curule magistracies.<ref>{{harvnb|Flower|2010|pp=155–56|ps=. "It was the mask and the chair that traditionally identified a man, and his family, as part of the political elite".}}</ref>

These elections meant the republican nobility was not entirely closed.{{sfn|Burckhardt|1990|p=84}} Nor in the republic did ''nobiles'' enjoy special legal privileges. In the later Republic, one who became noble was termed a ''[[novus homo]]'' ({{langx|en|new man}}), an unusual achievement.{{sfn|Badian|2012b}} Two of the most famous examples of these self-made "new men" were [[Gaius Marius]], who held the consulship seven times, and [[Cicero]]. While wholly new men were rare, the political elite as a whole turned over as some families were unable to win elections over multiple generations and other families became more prominent, creating slow-moving and osmotic change.{{sfn|Burckhardt|1990|p=86}}

The prestige of the ''nobiles'' was connected directly to their election to high office by the people.{{sfn|Flower|2010|p=46}} During the Roman Republic, the ''nobiles'' never held less than about 70 per cent of the consulships over longer periods; by the time of Cicero, the ''nobiles'' as a whole held more than 90 per cent of the consulships, a proportion "remarkably untouched by the most violent political crises".{{sfn|Badian|2012a}} The narrowing of what made someone part of the ''nobiles'' occurred around the time of the [[constitutional reforms of Sulla]] with its "much larger senate with a proportionately smaller circle of elite senators... many new Italians in the Sullan senate, and the increased number of [[praetor]]s" leading the elite to close ranks to preserve their prestige.{{sfn|Flower|2010|p=156–57}}

During the time of [[Augustus]], a ''nobilis'' enjoyed easier access to the consulship, with a lowered age requirement perhaps set at 32. Women who descended from [[Principate|Augustan]] consuls were also regarded as belonging to the Roman nobility.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Syme |first=Ronald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fj8oQ4lzteIC&dq=%22The+word+'nobilis,'+not+possessing+or+needing+a+legal+definition%22&pg=PA50 |title=The Augustan Aristocracy |date=1989 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-814731-2 |language=en |pages=50–52}}</ref> The term still referred to descendants of republican and triumviral consuls, but by the [[Nerva–Antonine dynasty|Antonines]], most noble families had died out; one of the last were the [[Acilii Glabriones]] who survived into the 4th century.{{sfn|Badian|2012a}}

==See also==
*''[[Cursus honorum]]''

==References==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|15em}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin|30em|indent=y}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |last=Badian |first=Ernst |title=''nobilitas'' |encyclopedia=The Oxford classical dictionary |year=2012a |editor-first1=Simon |editor-last1=Hornblower |editor-first2=Antony |editor-last2=Spawforth |editor-first3=Esther |editor-last3=Eidinow |isbn=978-0-19-954556-8 |edition=4th |location=Oxford |oclc=959667246 |publisher=Oxford University Press }}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |last=Badian |first=Ernst |title=''novus homo'' |encyclopedia=The Oxford classical dictionary |year=2012b |editor-first1=Simon |editor-last1=Hornblower |editor-first2=Antony |editor-last2=Spawforth |editor-first3=Esther |editor-last3=Eidinow |isbn=978-0-19-954556-8 |edition=4th |location=Oxford |oclc=959667246 |publisher=Oxford University Press }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Brunt |first=PA |date=1982 |title=Nobilitas and Novitas |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/299112 |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |volume=72 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.2307/299112 |jstor=299112 |issn=0075-4358|url-access=subscription }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Burckhardt |first=Leonhard A |date=1990 |title=The Political Elite of the Roman Republic: Comments on Recent Discussion of the Concepts "Nobilitas and Homo Novus" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4436138 |journal=Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=77–99 |jstor=4436138 |issn=0018-2311}}
* {{Cite book |last=Flower |first=Harriet |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2eYDwAAQBAJ |title=Roman republics |year=2010 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-14043-8 |location=Princeton}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
<!--The following sources were not used in the preparation of this stub; they are recommended reading for those wishing to expand the article.-->

* [[Hans Beck]]: ''Karriere und Hierarchie. Die römische Aristokratie und die Anfänge des "cursus honorum" in der mittleren Republik'', Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2005.
* Hans Beck: ''Die Rolle des Adligen. Prominenz und aristokratische Herrschaft in der römischen Republik.'' In: Hans Beck, Peter Scholz, [[Uwe Walter]] (eds.): ''Die Macht der Wenigen. Aristokratische Herrschaftspraxis, Kommunikation und "edler" Lebensstil in Antike und Früher Neuzeit'', Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, 101–123.
* [[Jochen Bleicken]]: ''Die Nobilität der römischen Republik.'' In: ''Gymnasium'' 88, 1981, 236–253.
* [[Klaus Bringmann]]: ''Geschichte der Römischen Republik. Von den Anfängen bis Augustus.'' Beck, Munich 2002.
* [[Matthias Gelzer]]: ''Die Nobilität der römischen Republik.'' Teubner, Leipzig 1912.
* Karl-Joachim Hölkeskamp: ''Die Entstehung der Nobilität. Studien zur sozialen und politischen Geschichte der Römischen Republik im 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr.'' Steiner, Stuttgart 1987, {{ISBN|3-515-04621-6}}.
* [[Fergus Millar]]: ''The Political Character of the Classical Roman Republic, 200–151 B.C.'' In: ''[[Journal of Roman Studies]]'' 74, 1984, 1–19.
* R. T. Ridley: ''The Genesis of a Turning-Point: Gelzer's "Nobilität"''. In: ''Historia'' 35, 1986, 474-502.

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[[Category:Social classes in ancient Rome]]