Explores the impact of social standing on the careers of senators and knights in the Roman Empire.

Richard Duncan-Jones is a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and has also been a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He has published widely on Roman social and economic history. His previous books published by Cambridge University Press are The Economy of the Roman Empire, 2nd edition (1982), Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy (1990) and Money and Government in the Roman Empire (1994). He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 1992.

Part I. Social Status and Senatorial Success: 1. Introduction: the senator; 2. Social standing and its impact on careers; 3. The career ladder at Rome; 4. Service overseas; 5. Defenders of the empire; 6. Influx from the provinces; 7. The chronology of the senatorial evidence; 8. Career inscriptions and what they leave out; Part II. Equestrian Perspectives: 9. Defining the equites; 10. The public employment of equites; 11. The economic involvements of equites; 12. The devaluation of equestrian rank; Part III. The Unprivileged: 13. Slavery: the background; 14. Slavery as a career; Appendixes: Appendix 1. Scoring systems for senators; Appendix 2. Non-vigintiviri and additional senators; Appendix 3. The duration of army posts; Appendix 4. Details of vigintiviri; Appendix 5. Some senatorial careers; Appendix 6. Early and late priesthoods; Appendix 7. Inventory of senators in the database.