Patrician Jobs

[kurtedwr]

What jobs did the aristocrats take besides senator, decurion, government leaders, or high military ranks?

[Klingan]

What jobs did the aristocrats take besides senator, decurion, government leaders, or high military ranks?

 

Such activities were not considers work, the aristocracy actually stayed away from anything that they considered a real job (at least in theory) as it was considered below their dignity - the only acceptable form of work was agriculture. Mercantile activities was common in practise though, as it was very profitable.

[Primus Pilus]

There are exceptions to every "rule" in history and in general life, however, patricians were largely land owners and farmers (meaning that they maintained agricultural estates rather than did the farming themselves) or involved in various government capacities (as well as religion, ie priesthoods). It was unseemly for patricians to be involved in standard trade class professions.

 

The exceptions can come into play in the cases of fallen families and similar where necessity outweighed social acceptance, especially as the Republic aged and evolved into Empire. The later the era, the more likely that patricians could be seen in any number of professions once considered taboo.

[sylla]

BTW, all that Primus Pilus said applied to the plebeian nobiles too.

 

MT Varro was a good example; Livy and others pretended to further embarrass the disgraced surviving consul after Cannae by quoting his (presumably apocryphal) antecedent of having worked as a butcher (in the literal, not the military sense).

Edited August 3, 2009 by sylla

[Fulvia]

Was there also a taboo about senators being a part of the publicani? I'll admit, it's hardly the most reliable source, but somewhere in Colleen McCullough's "Master of Rome" series, she has the character of M.Brutus getting into some trouble trying to keep his tax operation in Asia under the table while heavily exploiting the people there.