Roman Society Ranks
The social class in ancient Rome was ranked, but there were multiple and overlapping social hierarchies, and an person's relative position in one might be higher or lower than in another. The position of freeborn Romans during the Republic was established by:
- ancestry (patrician or plebeian);
- census rank (ordo) which is based on fortune and political privilege, with the senatorial and equestrian ranks higher above the ordinary citizen;
- attainment of honors (the novus homo or self-made man recognized his family as nobilis, "noble", and thus there were noble plebeians); and
- citizenship, of which there were grades with varying rights and privileges. Men who lived in towns outside Rome (such as municipia or colonies) might hold citizenship, but lack the right to vote (see ius Latinum); free-born Roman women were citizens, but could not elect or hold political office.