Political Power in Mid-Republican Rome litical, a control which ended and neutralized the ‘‘conflict of the orders.’’
But,allelseapart,manyofthepillarsonwhichsuchaviewrestshavebeen
demolished in the recent work of P. A. Brunt, first in ‘‘NobilitasandNovi-
tas,’’JRS():,andnowinThe Fall of the Roman Republic(),above
allinthechaptersonclientelaandonfactiones.Whoeverwantstoarguefor
thegenealogicalcontinuityofthegoverningélite,theimportanceoflateral
groupingswithintheSenate,orthesocio-politicalfunctionofthoseverti-
callinksallegedlyconstitutedbyclientelawillatanyratenowhavetostart
alloveragain.Asforgenealogicalcontinuity,anydiscussionwillalsohave
to deal with K. Hopkins,Death and Renewal(), chap. : ‘‘Political Suc-
cessionintheLateRomanRepublic(–B.C.).’’Moreover,assoonaswe
attempt to followgentesandfamiliaeback into the archaic period,we have
to face the fact that at least some ‘‘family-histories’’ were antiquarian con-
structions;seeT.P.Wiseman,‘‘LegendaryGenealogiesinLate-Republican
Rome,’’GreeceandRome():RomanStudies(),.Ournotions
of whichfamiliaewere which also depend essentially on the combination
ofnomenandcognomenasattributedinlaternarratives,andintheinscribed
AugustanFasti,toindividualsreportedtohaveheldoffices,passedlaws,or
foughtwars.Buthowmanyofthecognominaappearingintheselatersources
werereallyinuseatthedatesimplied?Thereisnosimpleanswer,andIdo
notwishtoimplythatawhollynegativeconclusioncanbejustified.See,for
astart,I.Kajanto,‘‘OntheChronologyoftheCognomenintheRepublican
Period,’’L’Onomastique Latine():.Forwhatcanbedoneby‘‘reading’’
themeaningsofcognominaintheirhistoricalcontext,seealsoE.L.Wheeler
‘‘SapiensandStrategems:TheNeglectedMeaningofaCognomen,’’Historia
():.Moregenerally,withoutahistoryofnames,basedoncontem-
porarydocuments,‘‘histories’’offamiliaeandgentesarepremature.
Itmayofcoursebethatthe‘‘patrician-plebeiannobility’’canberestored
totheunchallengeddominationwhichithasenjoyedposthumouslyformost
of this century. But I for one doubt it. For wecouldread the history of
themiddleRepublicasrecordingtheimpositiononoffice-holdersofpublic
rulesandobligations,coupledwithanever-acceleratingneedforindividuals
toadvertisethemselvestothePeopleandtocompetefortheirfavour.The
firstofthesethemesisbroughtoutbestofallbyA.N.Sherwin-Whitein
‘‘TheLexRepetundarumandthePoliticalIdeasofGaiusGracchus,’’JRS
():,aseminalcontributiontoourunderstandingofrepublicanpoli-
tics.ThesecondisplainlyvisibleintherecordofshowsputoninRome,in
theliteraryrecordofstatuesandmonumentsinRome,andinthearchaeo-
logical record. See above all the classic article by T. Hölscher, ‘‘Die An-
fängerömischerRepresentationskunst,’’Röm.Mitt.():.AsHölscher