Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/131

Rh might at times even oppose the capitalists. In a general way, however, the priyileges of the nobles and the Claudian law drew the line between the aristocracy of wealth and the nobility; and the possession of wealth, as well as the principle that it was disgraceful to work for pay, distinguished the aristocracy of wealth from the rest of the people.

Growth of the Aristocracy of Wealth. — The new conditions were favorable to this aristocracy. The extension of Roman dominion greatly multiplied the opportunities for trade and commerce, and especially for money-lending, and increased also the number and profitableness of government contracts. Capital was being massed and organized as never before; agriculture was developed and carried on with slaves on the same large scale as in later times. Consequently the numbers, influence, ambition, and greed of the moneyed aristocracy were constantly on the increase. According to a list of the year 225, there were about twenty-two thousand who by age, birth, and wealth were qualified to serve in the cavalry. This number included the nobles in the equestrian centuries, but excluded, for instance, persons past forty-six years of age. The members of the moneyed class filled vacancies in the equestrian centuries and the military tribunates, in so far as they were permitted by the nobles. Henceforth this class, and not the lower classes, usually furnished the new men (novi homines), such as Gaius Flaminius; and it began more and more to influence in particular the financial administration.

Insignia of the Aristocracy of Wealth. — In consequence of the influence and power of the class, such of its members as were senators began to assume a part of the insignia of the nobility (p. 103). As senators they had the purple stripes (clavus) on their tunics, and appear also to have worn the gold ring. They gave their children the golden amulet