Roman Empire

===Census rank===
{{See also|Senate of the Roman Empire|Equestrian order|Decurion (administrative)}}
The Latin word ''ordo'' (plural ''ordines'') is translated variously and inexactly into English as "class, order, rank". One purpose of the [[Roman census]] was to determine the ''ordo'' to which an individual belonged. The two highest ''ordines'' in Rome were the senatorial and equestrian.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} Outside Rome, the [[decurion (administrative)|decurions]], also known as ''[[curiales]]'', were the top governing ''ordo'' of an individual city.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

[[File:0 Sarcophage d'Acilia - Pal. Massimo alle Terme.JPG|thumb|left|Fragment of a sarcophagus depicting [[Gordian III]] and senators (3rd century)]]
"Senator" was not itself an elected office in ancient Rome; an individual gained admission to the Senate after he had been elected to and served at least one term as an [[Executive magistrates of the Roman Empire|executive magistrate]]. A senator also had to meet a minimum property requirement of 1 million ''[[sestertii]]''.<ref>{{Harvp|Boardman|2000|pp=217–218}}; {{Cite book |last=Syme |first=Ronald |title=Provincial at Rome: and Rome and the Balkans 80 BC – AD 14 |date=1999 |publisher=University of Exeter Press |isbn=0-85989-632-3 |pages=12–13 |author-link=Ronald Syme}}</ref> Not all men who qualified for the ''ordo senatorius'' chose to take a Senate seat, which required [[Domicile (law)|legal domicile]] at Rome. Emperors often filled vacancies in the 600-member body by appointment.<ref>{{Harvp|Boardman|2000|pp=215, 221–222}}; {{Harvp|Millar|2012|p=88|loc=The standard complement of 600 was flexible; twenty [[quaestor]]s, for instance, held office each year and were thus admitted to the Senate regardless of whether there were "open" seats}}</ref> A senator's son belonged to the ''ordo senatorius'', but he had to qualify on his own merits for admission to the Senate. A senator could be removed for violating moral standards.{{Sfnp|Millar|2012|p=88}}

In the time of Nero, senators were still primarily from [[Italy (Roman Empire)|Italy]], with some from the Iberian peninsula and southern France; men from the Greek-speaking provinces of the East began to be added under Vespasian.{{Sfnp|Boardman|2000|pp=218–219}} The first senator from the easternmost province, [[Cappadocia (Roman province)|Cappadocia]], was admitted under Marcus Aurelius.{{Efn|That senator was Tiberius Claudius Gordianus{{Sfnp|Boardman|2000|p=219}}}} By the [[Severan dynasty]] (193–235), Italians made up less than half the Senate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=MacMullen |first=Ramsay |date=1966 |title=Provincial Languages in the Roman Empire |journal=The American Journal of Philology |volume=87 |issue=1 |doi=10.2307/292973 |pages=1–17|jstor=292973 }}</ref> During the 3rd century, domicile at Rome became impractical, and inscriptions attest to senators who were active in politics and munificence in their homeland (''patria'').{{Sfnp|Millar|2012|p=88}}

Senators were the traditional governing class who rose through the ''[[cursus honorum]]'', the political career track, but equestrians often possessed greater wealth and political power. Membership in the equestrian order was based on property; in Rome's early days, ''equites'' or knights had been distinguished by their ability to serve as mounted warriors, but cavalry service was a separate function in the Empire.{{Efn|The relation of the equestrian order to the "public horse" and Roman cavalry parades and demonstrations (such as the ''[[Lusus Troiae]]'') is complex, but those who participated in the latter seem, for instance, to have been the ''equites'' who were accorded the high-status (and quite limited) seating at the theatre by the ''[[Lex Roscia theatralis]]''. Senators could not possess the "public horse".{{Sfnp|Wiseman|1970|pp=78–79}}}} A census valuation of 400,000 sesterces and three generations of free birth qualified a man as an equestrian.{{Sfnp|Wiseman|1970|pp=71–72, 76}} The census of 28 BC uncovered large numbers of men who qualified, and in 14 AD, a thousand equestrians were registered at [[Cádiz]] and [[Padua]] alone.{{Efn|Ancient Gades, in Roman Spain (now [[Cádiz]]), and Patavium, in the Celtic north of Italy (now [[Padua]]), were atypically wealthy cities, and having 500 equestrians in one city was unusual.<ref>[[Strabo]] 3.169, 5.213</ref>}}{{Sfnp|Wiseman|1970|pp=75–76, 78}} Equestrians rose through a military career track (''[[tres militiae]]'') to become highly placed [[prefect]]s and [[procurator (Roman)|procurators]] within the Imperial administration.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fear |first=Andrew |chapter=War and Society |date=2007 |title=The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare: Rome from the Late Republic to the Late Empire |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-78274-6 |volume=2 |pages=214–215}}; {{Harvp|Bennett|1997|p=5}}</ref>

The rise of provincial men to the senatorial and equestrian orders is an aspect of social mobility in the early Empire. Roman aristocracy was based on competition, and unlike later [[European nobility]], a Roman family could not maintain its position merely through hereditary succession or having title to lands.<ref>{{Harvp|Morris|Scheidel|2009|p=188}}; {{Harvp|Millar|2012|pp=87–88}}</ref> Admission to the higher ''ordines'' brought distinction and privileges, but also responsibilities. In antiquity, a city depended on its leading citizens to fund public works, events, and services (''[[Munera (ancient Rome)|munera]]''). Maintaining one's rank required massive personal expenditures.{{Sfnp|Millar|2012|p=96}} Decurions were so vital for the functioning of cities that in the later Empire, as the ranks of the town councils became depleted, those who had risen to the Senate were encouraged to return to their hometowns, in an effort to sustain civic life.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Liebeschuetz |first=Wolfgang |chapter=The End of the Ancient City |date=2001 |title=The City in Late Antiquity |publisher=Taylor & Francis |pages=26–27}}</ref>

In the later Empire, the ''[[Dignitas (Roman concept)|dignitas]]'' ("worth, esteem") that attended on senatorial or equestrian rank was refined further with titles such as ''[[vir illustris]]'' ("illustrious man").{{Sfnp|Millar|2012|p=90|loc=calls them "status-appellations"}} The appellation ''clarissimus'' (Greek ''lamprotatos'') was used to designate the ''[[Dignitas (Roman concept)|dignitas]]'' of certain senators and their immediate family, including women.{{Sfnp|Millar|2012|p=91}} "Grades" of equestrian status proliferated.{{Sfnp|Millar|2012|p=90}}

====Unequal justice====
[[File:Tunisia-3363 - Amphitheatre Spectacle.jpg|thumb|Condemned man attacked by a leopard in the arena (3rd-century mosaic from Tunisia)]]
As the republican principle of citizens' equality under the law faded, the symbolic and social privileges of the upper classes led to an informal division of Roman society into those who had acquired greater honours (''honestiores'') and humbler folk (''humiliores''). In general, ''honestiores'' were the members of the three higher "orders", along with certain military officers.<ref name="verb">{{Cite journal |last=Verboven |first=Koenraad |date=2007 |title=The Associative Order: Status and Ethos among Roman Businessmen in Late Republic and Early Empire |url=https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/395187/file/6799583 |journal=Athenaeum |volume=95 |pages=870–872 |hdl=1854/LU-395187 |access-date=13 January 2017 |archive-date=3 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181103090625/https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/395187/file/6799583 |url-status=live }}; {{Harvp|Peachin|2011|pp=153–154}}</ref> The granting of universal citizenship in 212 seems to have increased the competitive urge among the upper classes to have their superiority affirmed, particularly within the justice system.<ref>{{Harvp|Peachin|2011|pp=153–154}}; {{Cite book |last=Perkins |first=Judith |title=Early Christian and Judicial Bodies |date=2009 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |pages=245–246}}; {{Harvp|Peachin|2011|p=475}}</ref> Sentencing depended on the judgment of the presiding official as to the relative "worth" (''dignitas'') of the defendant: an ''honestior'' could pay a fine for a crime for which an ''humilior'' might receive a [[scourging]].{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|pp=153–154}}

Execution, which was an infrequent legal penalty for free men under the Republic,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gaughan |first=Judy E. |title=Murder Was Not a Crime: Homicide and Power in the Roman Republic |date=2010 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-72567-6 |page=91}}; {{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Gordon P. |title=A History of Exile in the Roman Republic |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-84860-1 |page=8}}</ref> could be quick and relatively painless for ''honestiores'', while ''humiliores'' might suffer the kinds of torturous death previously reserved for slaves, such as [[crucifixion]] and [[damnatio ad bestias|condemnation to the beasts]].<ref name="fatal">{{Cite journal |last=Coleman |first=K. M. |date=2012 |title=Fatal Charades: Roman Executions Staged as Mythological Enactments |journal=Journal of Roman Studies |volume=80 |doi=10.2307/300280 |pages=44–73 |jstor=300280 |s2cid=163071557}}</ref> In the early Empire, those who converted to Christianity could lose their standing as ''honestiores'', especially if they declined to fulfil religious responsibilities, and thus became subject to punishments that created the conditions of [[Christian martyrs|martyrdom]].<ref>{{Harvp|Peachin|2011|pp=153–154}}; {{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=O.F. |title=Penal Practice and Penal Policy in Ancient Rome |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |page=108}}</ref>