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Tarantine society has a strict hierarchy of social classes. There are three simple social categories and everyone belongs to one of them. Those categories are the nobility, the commoners and the slaves. Within those three classes, people are further divided into specific social classes. The following chart shows the actual hierarchy.
Specific descriptions of each social class follow.
The patricians are Tarantium's hereditary nobility. The original patricians can trace their ancestry back to the first senators of the fledgling city of Tarantium more than 1500 years ago. They can invariably count many illustrious men among their ancestors. When the Emperor absorbed the Teutonic invaders into the Empire, a number of their nobles were entered onto the citizenship rolls as patricians, revitalizing what had been a dying class. Today there are two groups of patricians, the original patricains and the Teutonic families. Being a patrician gives one great status which, in turn, gives a great advantage in politics. Most (but not all) patrician families are incredibly wealthy, which gives them another political advantage. The patrician families have ancient alliances which further solidify their hold on politics. Finally, being a patrician makes one part of an "old boys club" that looks out for its own. Aside from these unofficial advantages, the patricians have one official entitlement over those of other nobles. They are entitled to own and display "Images"*. Otherwise, they have the same duties, rights and priveleges as other nobles. (See Plebian Nobles below) Patricians tend to be career public servants when they have a career at all. Most are senators with political careers of varying degrees of distinction. Some choose the military or the church instead. A few spend their time as lawyers and orators, though those occupations tend to go with a political career. Some patricians simply stay home and live off their vast fortunes. Not all patricians are wealthy, however. There are patricians who live in abject poverty. Either they or an ancestor lost the family fortune, leaving the family destitute. They are the exception to the rule of the patrician "old boys club". Most patricians try to ignore them as best they can, seeing them as an embarrasment to their class. Such destitute patricians reciprocate by trying to hide their great ancestry in shame or doing desperate things to try to raise the money to restore the respect of their peers and to have the political career their ancestry entitles them to. * "Images" are magical items of great power produced by skilled illusionists. They are illusionary representations of great ancestors of the patrician family that possesses them. They have been made to emulate the appearance, speech and mannerisms of their subject as closely as possible. They can be made to reproduce great moments from the subjects life, such as reciting a famous speech or performing a great deed. They can also remember names and react in a limited fashion to those around them. This is purely the result of magical "programming". They have no actual intellegence. The original purpose of this feature was to allow the images to appear to be participating in funerals or triumphs and either mourning or cheering their descendant.
Any noble who is not a member of the Imperial family or a patrician is a plebian noble. To be noble, one must either be a member of the senate or be the spouse or child of a senator. Plebian noble status is semi-hereditary. The children of a senator are considered to be noble, but cannot pass their noble status on unless they themselves enter the senate or marry a senator. This ensures that the nobility continues to serve the empire rather than retire to an idle life of status without service. The benefits to being a noble are primarily social. Aside from social status, nobles vote in separate tribes and centuries, which gives them a great deal of control over the vote. Only the equestrians can rival that control. Nobles also have the right to employ armed men to man their public ship and to protect themselves and their property. They may fully crew and arm one warship. They may also employ up to forty personal bodyguards and up to forty additional guards per estate. Such estate guards must remain on their individual estates and not be gathered into larger groups. They may also wear the same narrow purple stripe on their toga and their tunics. Senators may wear a broad stripe instead. Nobles also suffer a significant restriction on their behavior. They are barred from engaging in commerce. They must gain their income from their land holdings. Noble status can be lost in three ways. One is by either losing the 1 million sesterces in assets a senator is required to have or failing to maintain the "public warship"* senators must keep. Such individuals are stripped of their membership in the senate and their noble status. A second way is to lose ones citizenship, which would also cost membership in the senate. Finally, One can also lose their noble status as punishment for a crime, typically treason. Anyone who derives their noble status from someone who loses their noble status also loses their noble status. One of the base requirements to be a senator is that one must have assets worth 1 million sesterces. This means that virtually all nobles are either wealthy or have wealth in the family. There are those sons and daughters of senators who, for whatever reason, have been cut off financially and are poor. Such individuals are rare, but a popular topic for plays. * In the early days, Tarantium had a citizen army with every able bodied man serving and contributing according to his means. As the wealthiest men, the Senators were required to maintain and crew a warship for the common defense.
The Equestrian class is in many ways the backbone of the Empire. They make up the Empire's prosperous middle class. In its ranks, you will find the wealthy merchants who drive the economy, the senior bureaucrats who keep the government running and many of the old military families from which the military draws its career officers. To be an equestrian one must be a citizen, have assets worth 400,000 sesterces, and maintain a "public horse"*. There is no requirement for political service and the military component has been reduced to riding in parades (and that is voluntary, though many young equestrians do so and compete vigorously to have the best horse and the fanciest armor). Thus, the vast majority of the Empires wealthiest citizens are members of the equestrian class. The benefits to being an equestrian over a plebian are few. The primary benefit is social status. Equestrians enjoy much greater status than Plebeians. Another benefit is that equestrians vote in different tribes and centuries than plebeians, which makes their vote more important. Finally, equestrians have the right to employ large groups of armed men to protect their person and property. They may employ up to 16 bodyguards and an additional 16 guards per ship, warehouse, home or other facility owned, though they may temporarily increase this number on ships leaving the empire. Such armed men should not be gathered into larger groups unless unarmed, though exceptions can be made for guarding exceptionally valuable cargoes. Finally, they may wear a narrow purple stripe on their toga and tunic to indicate their class. As is the case with the nobles, equestrians can pass their citizenship on to their spouse and children but their children must themselves satisfy all the requirements of the equestrian class in order to pass that status on to their children. One can lose ones status as an equestrian in the same ways as a noble loses his status -- by losing the assets required, by failing to maintain a public horse, by losing citizenship or as punishment for a crime. * In the early days, Tarantium had a citizen army with every able bodied man serving and contributing according to his means. Being among the wealthiest men, the Equestrians were required to maintain a cavalry horse and serve as cavalry when the army was called up. It is from this duty that the class draws its name.
Plebeians are simply those citizens who do not hold a higher social class. No citizen can fall lower on the social ladder than plebian rank. There is no shame in being a plebian. The vast majority of the citizens of the empire are plebeians and even the lowliest plebian is a cut above a non-citizen. One can only lose plebian status by being stripped of their citizenship for some reason.
Freedmen are slaves who have been freed and granted citizenship. They hold a special citizenship which grants them all the priveleges of citizenship save that of holding office. That, in turn, bars them from ever rising to the equestrian order or above. This is the case no matter how rich they become. A Freedman can, and some have, become one of the richest men in the Empire, but must remain a freedman. This restriction applies for one generation only. The children of a freedman will be citizens with full rights. Socially, freedmen rank just below the plebians but, because they hold more citizenship rights, the freedman holds slightly more status than the head count (See "Head Count" below). This is something of a sore point with the head count. One can find people from all walks of life among the freedmen, though naturally there will be many who have some profession or skill suitable for a slave. Some freedmen simply live off the dole and their patron's generosity. Indeed, since it is traditional for a freed slave to become the client of his former master, some slave owners in the past freed slaves simply so that they would gain clients that the state would be obligated to feed. It should be noted that one can only become a freedman by being a slave under Tarantine law. People enslaved by other nations or cultures who are then freed suffer no stigma and retain whatever social class they may previously have been entitled to.
The head count is composed of those who were born in the empire but who do not hold Tarantine citizenship. There are many reasons one can be a member of the head count. One can be born to the head count. This typically happens if ones parents are living in the empire but do not have citizenship for whatever reason. They might be members of the head count, foreigners, provincials or some combination. This only applies if born in a province that holds citizenship (See Provincials below). One can also be placed in the head count. This generally happens in one of two ways. If one is a foundling or an orphan who cannot provide enough information to establish citizenship, one is made a member of the head count. One can also become a member of the head count by being stripped of ones citizenship without being enslaved. Most members of the head count are very poor. They typically lack the opportunity and education to get any but the most menial and lowest paying jobs if they can find work at all. Many take up a life of crime and members of the head count make up a significant proportion of the Empire's underworld. The army is one of the best routes of advancement open to the head count. Head count soldiers earn full citizenship at the end of their careers along with the other benefits of service, so it many ambitious members of the head count join the army. Finally, those who are very daring, very desperate or both become adventurers. There can be wealthy members of the head count, but they are uncommon. Typically, their parents are wealthy foreigners who live in the empire but never managed to obtain citizenship. There is also the occasional member of the head count who earned (or found -- many members of the head count become adventurers) a fortune somehow. The members of the head count are "partial" citizens with only two legal rights. They are allowed to benefit from public assistance (the grain dole) and they are permitted to join the legions (normally only citizens can join the legions). While they enjoy the basic protection under the law that anyone in the empire has, they are not citizens and thus lack many of the additional protections citizens enjoy. This makes them a target for law enforcement in any investigation and limits their chances for advancement in both legal and illegal career paths.
Like the head count, provincials are non-citizen residents of the empire. The difference is that they were born in a province which does not have citizenship rights. This status is reserved for situations where an entire land and its people have been brought into the empire, typically by conquest, and must be assimilated. The status is also used when a barbarian tribe enters the empire seeking a new home. Until they are considered worthy of citizenship, the people of such a land are considered provincials as are any children born to them. When the new province is considered to be assimilated, it will be granted citizenship and all of the provincials of that province will become plebeians and are eligible to apply for equestrian status if they can meet the requirements. Since entire populations can become provincials, they can fill every role in society from rich merchant to stable boy. It is impossible to pidgeonhole them. It is likely that they will have their own social classes and ranking amongst themselves. No matter what it is, they are mere provincials to Tarantines.
Federatii are foreigners who come from nations or tribes which hold the title "Friend and Ally of the Tarantine People". This gives them greater status than other foreigners and, in practice, they will receive better treatment by the vigilees. Otherwise, they are similar to Foreigner's (See Foreigner Below).
Foreigners are people from outside the empire. They are not citizens. They enjoy the basic protections of the law, of course, but none of the additional rights of citizens. They may join auxiliary units of the military, but not the legions. They may also join the Emperor's Varangian Guard, but not the Praetorian Guard. While foreigners may have their own social hierarchy and an individual may be high in it, it is all seen as inferior to even the lowliest Tarantine citizen. Foreigners may rise by being granted citizenship. This can be aquired by an act of the emperor or the senate. It may be an individual act granting citizenship to that one individual or it may be a blanket act giving citizenship to everyone in an area or a tribe.
Slaves are the bottom rung of society. They have very few rights and legal protections. The few that they do have are aimed at ensuring decent treatment for them. Slavery has been relatively rare in the past couple of centuries. The supply dwindled and prices rose, making it hard for anyone for the rich to own one. This has changed the role slaves play in society. Currently, slave ownership is mostly a status symbol for the rich. Having slaves working in and around ones home is seen as a sign of wealth. Only violent criminals are still used for dangerous hard labor jobs like mining. Instead, most slaves work as servants and staff in great houses. Slaves have their own hierarchy. Its based on both the slave's owner and job with the most menial jobs being the lowest status while slaves with significant responsibility or serving important people have high status. Slaves also derive status from their owner. Slaves belonging to the rich and powerful but doing low status jobs might still have more status than slaves with high status jobs belonging to a much more humble owner. One can become a slave by being captured in war, by being condemned by the courts, or by being born to slave parents. One can escape slavery by buying ones freedom or by being manumitted by either your owner or the government. The former usually happens either for good service, typically in the owners will. The latter generally happens when the slave is a gladiator and wins an important series of bouts, though it is not unknown for a court decision condemning someone to slavery to be overturned or for a mistreated slave to be freed. Finally, the church can free slaves who were pagan when enslaved and who have made a sincere conversion, but rarely does so without the consent and cooperation of the owner. A freed slave enters one of four social classes. Freed slaves who are given citizenship become a member of the freedman class. Those freed without citizenship become either a member of the head count, a provincial, or a foreigner. If born or raised from childhood in the empire, the former slave is made a member of the head count. If born in a conquered province, a provincial. If born in a foreign land, the former slave reverts to being a foreigner.
Last Updated:
Saturday, 21-Jun-2003 23:55:13 CDT
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