“Some Emperors Succeeded in Creating Good Relations with Different Social Groups Within the City of Rome; Others Failed Completely” How Far Do the Sources Support This View of the Relationship Between the Emperor and the People of Rome?

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Success for Roman Emperors, in a more general sense, often boiled down to their popularity amongst the people of Rome itself with their relationships there setting the precedent for how they were received elsewhere. Rome was an incredibly diverse and cosmopolitan city and its citizens were from all branches of the Roman social hierarchy. Therefore, in order for an Emperor to enjoy success in Rome they had to form relationships with different social groups, which for the purpose of this essay will include: the Plebeians, Freedmen, Equestrians and Senators. To successfully create good functional relationships, each social group had differing interests in what the emperor could offer them, and it is by the extent to which each emperor was able to give different social groups what they wanted, one can judge the successes of each emperor. For the plebs, they were seemingly most interested in money and games; the freedmen wanted social respectability and to be included more into Roman society; Equestrians and Senators both sought autonomy and power, more individualism and respect from their emperor. This essay then, will argue that whilst no emperor was a complete failure and all managed some degree of successful relationship with one social group or another, some were infinitely more successful than others, forming strong relationships with multiple social groups. The Plebs were perhaps the easiest of all the social groups to keep happy, whilst we have no plebeian sources as they were often unable to read or write, what we do have from Tacitus and from Suetonius is still useful. They corroborate each other and although they often speak of the plebs generally, not in specifics, this is to be expected as these were the lowest social class in Rome whom were not slaves. Augustus, widely considered the most important, even successful Emperor was in a position where he could

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