Friday, June 02, 2023
The Thin Men
Ronald Syme, "Human Rights and Social Status at Rome," in his Roman Papers, VI (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), pp. 182-192 (at 185-186):
Related post: The Fats.
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Clientela was potent and pervasive all through society. The way that society divided is illustrated by language. On the one side the men of substance (senatorial or equestrian), the 'locupletes'. They take up space, they are solid and three-dimensional. On the other, the thin men, the 'tenues' or 'tenuiores', who are barely visible as individuals. In the mass they are filling-material, that is plebs. There is a curious parallel in Polynesia—'big men' and 'rubbish men', for so the latter are content to call themselves.Oxford Latin Dictionary, s.v. tenuis, sense 10:
