Social classes in ancient Rome

name given to members of the old-established upper class in ancient Rome

thumb|Distributing bread to plebeians

The ' (; , though sometimes referred to as "knights" in English) constituted the second of the property/social-based classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the senatorial class. A member of the equestrian order was known as an ' ().

The nobiles ( nobilis, ) were members of a social rank in the Roman Republic indicating that one was "well known". This may have changed over time: in Cicero's time, one was notable if one descended from a person who had been elected consul. In earlier periods and more broadly, this may have included a larger group consisting of those who were patricians, were descended from patricians who had become plebeians via transitio ad plebem, or were descended from plebeians who had held curule offices.

free provincial subjects of the Roman Empire who was not a Roman citizen

tenant farmers in the late Roman Empire and the Early Middle Ages

In ancient Rome, the curiales (from co + viria, 'gathering of men') were initially the leading members of a gentes (clan) of the city of Rome. Their roles were both civil and sacred. Each gens curialis had a leader, called a curio. The whole arrangement of assemblies was presided over by the curio maximus.

The aerarii (from Lat. aes, "bronze" or "money" in its subsidiary sense of "poll tax") were a class of Roman citizens not included in the thirty tribes of Servius Tullius, and subject to a poll-tax arbitrarily fixed by the censor. They were: The inhabitants of conquered towns which had been deprived of local self-government, who possessed the jus conubii (right of legal marriage) and jus commercii (right to engage in lawful business), but no political rights. Caere is said to have been the first example of this (353 BC). Hence the expression "in tabulas Caeritum referre" came to mean " to degr

In ancient Rome, (in-, "not", and fama, "reputation") was a loss of legal or social standing. As a technical term in Roman law, was juridical exclusion from certain protections of Roman citizenship, imposed as a legal penalty by a censor or praetor. In more general usage during the Republic and Principate, was damage to the esteem (aestimatio) in which a person was held socially; that is, to one's reputation. A person who suffered was an (plural ).

Ingenui (singular ingenuus or feminine ingenua) was a legal description of persons who were born free in ancient Rome, as distinguished from free people who had once been slaves (liberti or libertae). Ingenuitas was the abstract noun for this status.

thumb|upright|In this inscription from AD 232, Walldürn, Roman Germany, Alexandrian dediticii join two scouts ([[exploratores) in a dedication to Dea Fortuna after the restoration of the decrepit baths at their military outpost.]]