Oh, that. Yes – that’s what I was referring to with Consentia and pulling the ladder up. It’s quite interesting that she’s very invested in upholding this system.
It’s a different situation as Azan notes below. I think focusing overmuch on the wealth and privilege misses the point: it’s a sharp cultural shift and that makes the families as alien to each other as Julia’s family is.
Heh. Well, the Aemilii are an interesting example because they interbred with the imperial family in the early Julio-Claudian period. Much of the remaining old patriciate did so (in Augustus’s attempts to shore up the family) and were caught up (along with those who hadn’t married into the family) in the purges of Sejanus, Gaius, and Nero. There’s a reason there was precious little if any of the old patriciate surviving into the Flavian period. They’d essentially become far too attached as appendages of the imperial family and too dangerous as claimants. If you look at the composition of the Senate by the time of the Antonines, there are very few members of even the old nobilitas left (that is, families descended from those who had an elected, republican-era consul). By late antiquity we can only identify a single family of the entire nobilitas left: the Acilii Glabriones. The “old nobility” of late antiquity was of Severan vintage as best, including the great and the good Anicii.
Iudia’s quite a bit different than the Julio-Claudian principate. We’re somewhere in between that period and the Antonines, which is why I pointed to Vespasian as a good example. While the persistence of the matriciate exceeds that of the Roman patriciate, the old families of republican stock seem to have a cleavage with the autocratic family of the Galeriae. Perhaps they intermarry – we just don’t know that lore – but they’re different. We do not see them with similar class interests, we do not see them trying to uphold each other. This is not the nobility of Versailles upholding the Bourbons.
Focusing only on wealth is a bit misleading. And I daresay, the senatorial elite might call it vulgar. 
I don’t see the barracks emperors as a spectrum. As a typology it’s a very specific phenomenon and it encapsulates the alienation of the senatorial class from the imperial governing apparatus. Gallienus is the last senatorial emperor we see until perhaps Tacitus, or even the 5th century emperors. Julia’s still a member of the matrician class, even though she’s sidelined and has the whiff of the provinces about her.
Sounds Flavian still. Domitian, anyone?
I mean, you know how much I love the mirror with Leta. I’m going at that with Augusta rather than Julia, but I certainly get it. I am very much interested in that battle between duty and love. I guess for me the duty won out longer until Augusta came along.
I mean, my prefect is serving her loyally up and until that one opportunity arises. I think of it more as a spur of the moment thing, perhaps not even fully thought through. He’s not plotting against her or anything. So that’s not as dissimilar to your prefect’s approach I think.
Alas I am unsure if we have chocolate in this universe. Is it something native to the Empire? Do we have to go to this world’s version of the new world? questions, questions…
Exactly! Of course, our prefect does not know this until we have that Leta conversation. And for some of us cough we haven’t quite earned it yet, but I’m hoping to get it!
Sounds like she’s more interested in a good toasted pop tart than a Snickers.
OOOO. I need to try this then. Perhaps I can pull it off… and just wait for the Consentia scenes. I’ll miss the music playing, but at least I can get that at Augusta’s birthday party…. (at least I hope, I don’t know if that’s available if I don’t ally Consentia, which I need to make sure I don’t do in order to get the compromise).
Very good. Obviously I’m too nice to do blackmail but it is very much true that it tends to make people kind of hate you and makes them aim for revenge which is… not as ideal as having them onside. This is especially the case when the blackmail involves the betrayal of very intimate trust.
Exactly my thoughts. Despite the privilege of the senatorial class, inheriting what they see as a public office is pure anathema. As Tacitus put it, the Empire has become the personal property of a single family. Ick! It’s something that I see as striking at the basic conception of the senatorial class and their entire sense of identity. It reduces them to courtiers and bureaucrats. There is no sense of identity between them and a family that choses to subjugate them. Even if they have plush accommodations and a wealthy lifestyle, it’s that difference between being a citizen and a subject that really strikes at their core as members of an urban civic elite.
There is a reason that when you meet Consentia at her house, despite all the wealth and trappings of luxury they have, they don’t seem super into standing on ceremony. Of course, they also have blinders of privilege too: they expect to be served and deferred to.
I mean, this is true! This happens a lot. Child characters are risky exactly because of that dichtomy. I wrote my own work starring an imperial heir some years ago, and I ended up getting BOTH the “she’s very annoying” and the “she sounds very grown up for her age.” It’s quite the achievement to avoid either outcome tbh. There’s a reason we all love Augusta. You should feel very proud.
