Romans and Italians 439this new state,domi nobilesfrom their respective areas of Italy, advanced by service and
loyalty to the emperor.
Although all Romans had a dual origin, this does not mean that municipal
politicians—even Latin ones—were let off the hook for their “newness” to the Roman
political scene or for their more obvious duality. Quite the contrary, bluer-blooded
aristocrats lorded their “aboriginal” status overmunicipes. They taunted the municipal
men by calling them foreigners, and they cast doubt on their citizen status and even
free birth. Thenobilissimieven attacked their fellow noblemen who had cultivated
matrimonial connections with thedomi nobilesof Italy. We find these attacks in legal
cases and from the rostrum, the expected venues (Farney 2007: 8–10). However, in
reality, the bulk of the Roman aristocracy was intimately bound up by ties of marriage
with the elite of Italy, having made a practice of it throughout its history: the aristocratic
Claudii, Quinctii, and Livii had intermarried with the elite families of Capua as early
as the third centuryBCE, although this did not prevent the defection of Campania
to Hannibal (Frederiksen 1984: 306–7). However, as with aristocrats of other ages,
some Romannobilesfound it useful upon occasion to act as though their bloodlines
were ancient and pure, though they knew, and often admitted, that the reality was
quite different.
Nevertheless, the perception was that most Romans were from amunicipium.“How
many of us are not of such an origin?” Cicero (Phillipics3.15) could ask his fellow sena-
tors. Of course, the situation was more acute to the new nobility or to those striving to
break into it. Accordingly, Quintus Cicero exhorted his famous brother to recite three
things to himself in his daily meditations while campaigning for the consulship of 63
BC: “‘I am anovus. I seek the consulship.’ There is a third thing to remember: ‘this is
Rome, a state formed by a gathering of nations’” (Commentariolum Petitionis54). One
could interpret Quintus’ words as a warning to his brother never to forget that the poli-
tics of Italic ethnic identity loomed over the competitive political climate of the capital,
especially for a “new” politician.
Thecognomen, the descriptive third name that most Romans bore, is a useful indica-
tor for how popular certain backgrounds were at different periods of Roman history.
For example, Cicero, echoed by a poet of the 40sBCE, jokes about how common the
cognomenSabinus has become among political candidates: some were just adopting the
name without having the background (Ad Familiares15.20.1; [Vergil],Catalepton10).
Indeed, we know of a dozen bearers of the name “Sabinus” among the Republican and
Augustan aristocracy, and its use by other classes makes it one of the most popular geo-
graphiccognominaever used by the Romans (Kajanto 1965: 51, 186; Wiseman 1971:
257–8). However, the proliferation of othercognomina, evocative of a variety of Ital-
ian origins, shows that any Italian homeland was becoming very important by the early
Empire: Marcus Herennius Picens (the “Picene”), Gaius Vibius Marsus (the “Marsic”),
Lucius Octavius Ligus (the “Ligurian”), Mamius Murrius Umber (the “Umbrian”), and
Gaius Attius Paelignus (the “Paelignian”).
This was especially so after the emperor Claudius took the next step, and forced an
unwilling (and Italian) senate to accept the elite of “long-haired” Gaul into their ranks
in 48CE. Noting that his own family—as with all other Roman ones—had come from