A patrician (from the Latin pater, the father), is a Roman citizen who belongs, by birth, to the upper class (nobility), enjoying many prerogatives. The class of the patricians was opposed to that of the plebeians.
According to ancient Roman tradition, the original patricians are descended from the hundred families, people, present at the founding of Rome, whose leaders, named patres, were chosen by Romulus and his successors to form the Senate.
For example, Julius Caesar is descended from the gens Julia. A gens includes several branches, families, headed by a pater familias who reigns supreme over all the members of the "familia" (wife, children, servants). The patricians would be descendants of the companions of Romulus. In reality, the patricians are undoubtedly the actors of the revolution of -510. At the beginning of the Republic, the patricians dominate.
The descendants of these first senators retained the name of patricians, even without being senators. Other powerful families settled in Rome, with the rank of patricians, such as the Claudii around 504 BC. J.-C.. Little by little, the patrician families disappear, a new aristocracy, called nobilitas is set up.
Patricians and plebeians
The patricians enjoyed many privileges:for a long time they were the only ones eligible for the first magistracies, and they married only among themselves. From the inequality between patricians and plebeians arose perpetual disputes which bloodied the young Roman Republic:they ended with:
* the creation of magistrates responsible for defending the interests of the plebeians, the tribunes of the plebs,
* by the institution of mixed marriages between patricians and plebeians,
* by the admission of plebeians to magistracies and offices hitherto reserved solely for patricians.
Despite the hostility of the two groups, there were certain links between them:the patricians granted their protection to those of the plebeians who claimed it. These, who were then referred to as clients, in turn had to be always ready to devote themselves to their bosses.
Majorum and Minorum gentium
There were three creations of Patricians in Rome:
* the first, when the city was founded,
* the second, when the Sabines of Tatius were admitted,
* the third, under Tullus Hostilius, who transported the Albans to Rome.
The Patricians of the 1st and 2nd creations were called Majorum gentium, those of the 3rd Minorum gentium.
The patrician families of the Roman Republic died out little by little, despite the adoptions. It seems that in the 4th century of the empire, there was no longer a single one.
Survival in Italy
It can be noted that the denomination still survives as a title of nobility in Italy (Patrizio).
In the Middle Ages in Italian cities, Patrician designates the members of the group of citizens to whom their wealth (often of mercantile origin), their origin or their alliances give a particular authority. They are the masters of communal institutions. Not all patricians are noble and not all nobles are patricians.