Note 35 — Chapter I · THE EARLIEST CONSTITUTION OF ROME
Reading edition
The test is illustrated by a controversy between the patrician Claudii and the plebeian Claudii Marcelli, Cic. de Orat. i. 39, 176 “Quid? qua de re inter Marcellos et Claudios patricios centumviri judicarunt, cum Marcelli ab liberti filio stirpe, Claudii patricii ejusdem hominis hereditatem gente ad se rediisse dicerent, nonne in ea causa fuit oratoribus de toto stirpis et gentilitatis jure dicendum.” Suetonius (Tib. 1) says of the clan of the Claudii Marcelli, as compared with their patrician namesakes, “nec potentia minor nec dignitate.”