Dev Diary: Marriage & Hierarchy

Diary – Marriage & Hierarchy

Hey, Lucas here! Today we’re gonna look at social status and social mobility in Historia Realis, in particular two institutions through which elite Romans achieved and maintained their position in society: conubio (marriage) and amicitia (literally “friendship”, but in fact more like a socio-political alliance). As we’ll see, these were interconnected.

Please note that the game is a work in progress, so everything I mention here can still change.

Tiers of Society

“I’d rather be first in a village than second in Rome.” — Julius Caesar (as often paraphrased from Plutarch, Life of Caesar)

Romans were fiercely competitive, and Rome was an increasingly socially mobile society. The following video I made shows the data on which families held Consulships. Over time, we see more and more novi homines (”new men”, those with no ancestors that had held the Consulship before).

Representing social mobility in the game also means representing social structure in some way. You can’t have social mobility without some kind of social ranking, places from which to climb and fall. This is where the Tier System comes in.

The Romans did have concrete structures of social hierarchy, the ordines (orders). But these were mostly to differentiate the elite from the rest. In Historia Realis, all simulated characters are part of the elite, men who could conceivably be elected into the cursus honorum, plus their families. So ordo (order) is not a useful concept here, since all men of the aristocracy were in the same order.

So how to rank these men?

The Tier system represents social position, even though there isn’t an exact historical equivalent to it. I believe that it captures the spirit of Roman hierarchy, if not its precise form. There is a danger here of being “too creative” with history and making something that is detached from how things actually worked in the past (I’m looking at you, pretty much every historical game). But I believe that part of making great games is taking risks and making bold, dangerous decisions – provided that they pay off. Only time will tell, but I like the results so far.

Another point in favor of this system is that it allows for the “top man” dynamic that the Romans liked so much. Their word for it was princeps, from which the word “prince” comes from, but which meant literally “first”. The most well-known use was princeps senatus, “first in the Senate”, and then the title of simply princeps by Augustus. However, Princeps was used in many contexts.

Rise and Fall

Being first (princeps) among peers was a crucial part of Roman life. In the game, therefore, there is a “first tier” among all tiers, which is where the top Romans are. Furthermore, each tier also has a “first place” slot. To simulate social mobility, the character in that first place gets promoted to a higher tier every five years (a period which the Romans called a lustrum, when new Censors took the census and rearranged the social hierarchy).

You gain points of Prominence in your tier by succeeding in your actions and endeavors, but also through other means. I will talk about this more in future diaries.

The concept of a Tier is represented by this stairs icon.

Amicitia and Clientela

How did Romans in different rungs of society relate to each other?

There was the patron and client relationship between men of different