Salve/Ave everyone
After hours of research & far too much movie and tv watching I have gained an insight into what I think makes a Patrician and hopefully sources will back me on this.
So what makes a Patrician?
Simply answer is wealth power & status. They were the aristocracy of the day, before the Empire they were the royal family. They were noble class made up of thirty one clans of Rome and were very exlusive, if you think of the glass ceiling that is well known in modern day society, you can only get there if you know where the way in is. Most didn't in some ways modern day society & nobility has not changed that much. Our concern here is only for Ancient Roman society however and therefore only used as an example here.
It was not about what you knew it was who you knew, think about the scene in Titanic where they all belittle the young man from Steerage and indeed the woman who had new wealth, we are talking very old wealth and probably not willing to share.
The Senate had the final vote on anything decided and of course the Senate was made of up of those from Patrician families. It is important to note that in the late Republic, some of these families were getting by using the reputation of their names, as they were fast losing their financial monopoly. The late Republic was the era of the plebian after all. As the balance of wealth shifted from patrician hands to plebian hands, coruption, greed and probably murder were a normal state of affairs, as noble families fought to stay in wealth and power.
In this era of the late republic - both Patricians and Equites had to be worth at least 400,000 sesterces to qualify for their respective class. Only later, during the reign of Augustus was the requirement for Patricians raised to 1,000,000 sesterces.
Soooo playing a Patrician where do you start?
First thing is to decide your background story & work from there. If you are joining an existing family on the sim then have a good chat with those in your family & find out who you are in relation to the others.
There is of course no set way to playing your Patrician character but to portray a realistic performance it is important to do some research and get a feel for the time period you are playing.
I will strongly recommend for this class Rome the series as I feel it gives a more subtle approach than the series Sparticus which I feel has a more realistic feel for the Gladiators & slaves classes. I think I found the idea of Roman nobles swearing a lot a little far fetched when to even raise your voice would be seen as dumbing down to the lower classes. However I did also watch a study of women in one of the series of Sparticus and found that very informative too. The costumes & wigs e.t.c. look more authentic to the period in Rome and the manner of the ladies also. Either is good though and search out other films & TV also that is in keeping with the period.
Be realistic if you like to use slang words and not a lot of flowery classical language then perhaps Patrician is not the class for you to role play. If you like to swear like a trooper in Role play be a Pleb class character. This does not mean you do not get to vent your fury in a role play it mean you vent when it is necessary. Pop culture has in some ways diluted the integrity of this class and made it seem that they really did behave in a vulgar way I honestly think this is TV only.
The romans had a terrible reputation for excesses and debauchery. However do not forget that they are a millitaristic society. Excesses like intoxication and promiscuity were frowned upon by society as they reflected a lack of self control. This is especially true for the patrician class and particularly for the women. Again, this is fodder for plenty of IC drama should you choose to comply with the norms or rebel.
If you take as a reference the outstanding series Rome you will see the aloof manner that male & female Patricians took to be a way of life. Note the posture the way they hold their heads high so they can look down on the little people of the city. If you take all these as learning tools for your rp you will be somewhere close to finding that spark of ingenuity that is role play creativity.
Start with a blue print for character and work from there, use as much material you can gather from all sources & really go to town with back story and building your own character.
Suggested patrician last names:
Aemilia, Aniensis, Arnensis, Camilia Claudia, Clustumina, Collina, Cornelia, Esquilina, Fabia , Falerna, Galeria , Horatia , Lemonia, Maecia, Menenia, Papiria, Pollia, Pomptina , Publilia ,Pupinia, Romilia, Sabatina, Sergia ,Stellatina Suburana, Terentina Tromentina Quirina Velina, Voltina, Oufentina Voturia Palantina Scaptia
Patrician names currently in use in Pompeii:
Cornelia, Licinia, Valeria, Publilia
Please speak to the respective players if you wish to join their family.
There were various spellings to theses gens and in the past there were more patrician families but they had either died out or had lost patrician status if you were not of theses house but still noble you were probably part of Equestrian order. Rich plebians might reach Equestrian status with a lot of manouvering - and just like today nobility didn't guarantee success or wealth .
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