Friedrich Münzer's Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families is recognized by all students of Roman history as a path-breaking work in the analysis of the Roman oligarchy. Here for the first time was a description of the methods by which the few most politically important clans in Rome, originally patrician, had expanded to take in so many promising plebeians -- not only from Rome but from all over Italy -- and make them part of the governing class.Münzer has had many imitators since his tragic death in Theresienstadt in 1942, but none has equaled his subtlety and brilliance in reconstructing family histories, as well as the links between families through intermarriage and political alliance. Drawing on all available documentary evidence, he offers an exhaustive analysis of the Roman aristocracy over the course of nearly four centuries -- including detailed information on virtually every Roman aristocratic family, from the beginning of the genuine historical tradition in Rome
