Editing Novus homo (section)

==History==
[[File:Bust of Cicero (1st-cent. BC) - Palazzo Nuovo - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Cicero]]]]
In the [[Roman Republic#Patrician Era (509–367 BC)|Early Republic]], tradition held that both Senate membership and the consulship were restricted to [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patricians]]. When [[plebeian]]s gained the right to this office during the [[Conflict of the Orders]], all newly elected plebeians were naturally ''novi homines''. With time, ''novi homines'' became progressively rarer as some plebeian families became as entrenched in the Senate as their patrician colleagues. By the time of the [[First Punic War]], it was already a sensation that ''novi homines'' were elected consuls in two consecutive years ([[Gaius Fundanius Fundulus]] in 243&nbsp;BC and [[Gaius Lutatius Catulus]] in 242&nbsp;BC). In 63&nbsp;BC, [[Cicero]] became the first ''novus homo'' to be consul in more than thirty years.<ref>Cicero, ''De lege agraria'', describes the interval as ''perlongo intervallo'' and his consulship "almost the first in living memory".</ref>

By the [[Roman Republic#From the Gracchi to Caesar (133–49 BC)|Late Republic]], the distinction between the orders became less important. The consuls came from a new elite, the ''[[nobiles]]'' ([[nobility|noblemen]]), an artificial [[aristocracy]] of all who could demonstrate direct descent in the male line from a consul.<ref>First demonstrated in Matthias Gelzer, ''Die nobilität der römischen Republik'' 1912, correcting [[Theodor Mommsen]]'s earlier proposition that all families possessing the ''[[ius imaginum]]'', that is, descended from [[Aedile|curule magistrates]], were designated ''nobili''. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, "Nobiles and Novi Reconsidered" ''The American Journal of Philology'' '''107'''.2 (Summer 1986), pp. 255-260, assesses and rejects some apparent exceptions to Gelzer's rule.</ref>