Title: BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: Social Pecking Order in the Roman World
Headings: Social Pecking Order in the Roman World
Social Pecking Order in the Roman World
Legal status
In Rome - and across the empire - status mattered.
Citizen and non-citizen
Evaluating status
Wealth, influence and connections
Social mobility
Rome and the empire needed new blood.
Status symbols
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Books
About the author

Content: Many organisations - such as the army, and trade or religious guilds (often organised for burial purposes) - operated on hierarchical principles. In these settings people could hold office and obtain titles, whereas in the wider world they could not. Top
Social mobility
Trimalchio's story suggests social mobility. The system rewarded hard work, ambition and the accumulation of wealth, but there were limits. Birth remained important, and new citizens, however wealthy, could be stigmatised by their past. Ex-slaves in particular could not escape the taint of slavery, and were not allowed to hold high office. These nouveaux-riches citizens could be mocked and despised for copying their social betters. Money could not buy everything, and individuals such as Trimalchio could find themselves in an incongruous position, fabulously wealthy but not part of high society. Rome and the empire needed new blood. This of course may not have concerned Trimalchio, or others like him;