How much social mobility was there in the Roman republic?

How much social mobility was there in the Roman republic?

Next to none

soldiering was a decent chance

Well, it was an aristocratic society. The army is typically viewed as where men made something of themselves, but the highest rank a non-aristocrat could typically attain would be the rank of Prefect, which had to be attained after becoming a Chief Centurion. Not many men would get that high. Even then, you still couldn't become an aristocrat after becoming a Prefect.

The system, not just in the army but in the merchantile world and others, rewarded hard work, ambition and generally the accumulation of wealth, but birth always remained important. For example, ex slaves, no matter how accomplished, could not hold high office. new citizens would always be stigmatized for their past.

Read Petronius's stuff about Trimalchio, that's my source.

>Diocletian was the son of a freeman

Interesting that social climbing became easier for commoners during the imperial era.

bumping before this gets pushed off by another /shitpost general/

After the Marian reforms maybe.

What are they holding?

Maybe equites?

From the mid-republic onward, a good deal.
It mostly relied on trade and soldiering, and it was a multigenerational kind of social mobility.
Like, grandpa was a legionary who rose to centurion and became well to do with plunder.
Daddy was an equestrian who reinvested grandpa's money and became rich.
You are a rich and well educated homo novus serving as a tribune in the army and then trying for a quaestorship and a life in politics.

she's holding a wax tablet & stylus, he's holding a scroll, I think.

Didn't you just have to be a citizen to run for office? It seems that you'd stand a good chance of going to the far ends of the empire/republic and killing barbarians for a few years, then coming back, and getting a cushy spot in the Senate.

You'd be bottom of the barrel, but if you're really hot stuff that won't stop it.

Wasn't Cicero just a random citizen outside of the city of Rome?

I could be completely wrong, since I'm still studying Rome. But this deserves a bump, and not the idiots who treat this as their place to spout unfunny Veeky Forums memes and chant Deus Vult! without actually saying anything of substance.

>Didn't you just have to be a citizen to run for office?
Well the starter ones yeah, but you're not running unopposed you know. How far do you think you're going without having the money to campaign properly?
Cicero was a hick, sure, but a rich hick. Rich enough to go on a grand tour of Greece to be educated in rhetorics and philosophy before starting his public life. In today's terms, he'd be from a 500k/year family.
Getting elected into the senate also had the added issue that you are required to be worth a certain amount of money (I think 300k sestertii, but don't quote me on it; basically a millionaire anyway) for election to the senate.

Well then I guess I should go research Roman get rich quick schemes during the Republic. kek

not really.

the Polybian army was organized by centurias, which were divided by age and wealth, not lineage. The frontline soldiers grouped both Plebeians and impoverished Patricians, and the more experienced rear lines saw both Patricians and Plebeians that had accumulated wealth.

a Roman that began his service as a frontline soldier would without a doubt gain experience, prestige and wealth as he grew older.

you had to be elected by the comices, plebeians and patricians had their own assemblies and elected one of the two magistrates each. All you had to do was go to the forums, prove you can give a speech or two and get popular with the people to eventually run for the lower steps of the cursus honorum. Being a Questor was basically just having jury duty. This was after the first Plebeian strike in the archaic times mind you, but the system stuck and these parallel democratic systems worked very well as an early form of the 'checks and balances' concept.

You better be a trade genius then.
Even soldiery wouldn't bring a man high enough to access the senate, short of the political intervention of a patron willing to lend you money. But why would they help you if you're just a poor pleb, when they have a dozen new rich educated clients every year begging for your patronage?

>get popular with the people
..No. The plebs didn't vote for the popular candidate, they voted for whomever their patrons told them to. If you aren't rich enough to deal with the vote merchants (which were the main way to get elected), you better be the hottest lawyer in town like Cicero, and start collecting favours (back then, lawyers couldn't be paid directly in money, just favour exchanges) from rich folk who are gonna sway their clientele towards you.

Equites were rich nobles before being a part of the army. That's precisely why there were equites.

>rich nobles
Just rich user. Being part of the ordo equestris was purely a function of economic worth.

One very important thing people don't often mention about Roman politics is being rich was so important because as a Senator or a Magistrate you didn't get paid and you may have to use your own funds to fund public events. Supposedly Senators were also barred from commercial activities.

>Supposedly
There's no suppositions about it, there's plenty of documentation about it.
Nothing stopped them from using freedmen as proxies tho, kek. Shitty hypocrites like Cato were well known for doing exactly this.

>Nothing stopped them from using freedmen as proxies
>freedmen despised by the upper class and even by not so upper class romans
>used as their go to when it comes to dirty work

>despised
'no'
Freedmen kept by their former masters' side were the most trustworthy slaves, they were close aides and even confidants. It was very common for masters to develop emotional ties to their freedmen, as you can see by reading Cicero's feelings about his slave and then freedman Tiro, his secretary of 40 years. He basically thought of him as a little brother almost.

>'no'
Perhaps by some of their masters but merely being an ex-slave meant no matter how rich they became much of Roman society was closed off to them and they were shoved in the shitty urban tribes. The best thing to do in many cases was continue serving your ex master.

>The best thing to do in many cases was continue serving your ex master.
Exactly, so they were perfect for the role of proxy. I'm not seeing what you're driving at.
Not to mention that their masters had rights to demand corvee out of them anyway, at the penalty of being made into a slave again if they refused.