A privileged landed aristocrat of early republican Rome. The patricians (or ‘fathers’) gathered after the expulsion of Tarquin to guide the state. Supported by revered tradition they were hereditary members of the Roman Senate. They monopolized all magistracies and priesthoods but during the ‘struggle of the Orders’ with the plebeians they were forced to share power with them—in 367 bc the consulship was open to plebeians. Thereafter a ‘plebeian nobility’ arose, which together with the patricians formed the ruling class. Their ranks were thinned and their influence waned in the late republic but the ancient names still carried prestige.