Patrician

The Patricians were the Roman Landowning Aristocracy,
Their wealth came from ownership of huge Estates known as Latifundia, as wealth from commerce was not considered acceptable.

Early Roman Society was divided into two classes, the Patricians and the Plebeians.
The History of Rome is the history of the struggle between these two classes and the emergence of a third Equestrian Class of Knights.
For Patricians to be accepted as Senators into the Roman Senate, their land had to be valued at a minimum of 1,000,000 Sestercii.
In 218 BCE, at the start of the Second Punic War (218-202 BCE), a Law was passed forbidding Roman Senators or their sons from owning Ships with a capacity of over 300 Amphorae. This reinforced the Patricians as a Landowning Class.
Under the Principate, Patricians were legally required to own one quarter of their estates in Italy. This underlined the fact that most Patricians Estates were located in the Provinces.

Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) stated that just six Senators owned all the Latifundia in Africa Proconsularis (Tunisia).
Pliny also stated that Crassus held Estates worth 200 Million HS or Sestercii
In the first century BCE, Cicero stated that to be a wealthy Senator required an annual income of 100,000 HS to 600,000 HS.
One Roman Senator in the first century CE had an annual income of 1.1 million Sestercii.
During the fourth century CE, Roman Senators had an annual income of between 6-9 Million HS.

The Senatorial Career Path, was the Roman Civil Service. The progression was known as the Cursus Honorum, meaning the ‘Sequence of Offices’.
This involved a career in the Legal, Military and Political Professions.
The Equestrian Class has their own career path called the Equo Publico.

Every member of a particular Roman Patrician Family or Gens was identified by bearing the same Nomen or nomen gentilicium of that family.
So, Titus Sulpicius Catulus would be a member of the Sulpicia family

Gens (Plural Gentes) meant a family, clan or tribe bearing the same name (Nomen) and descended from the same ancestor.