Views
The optimates favored the nobiles (noble families) and opposed the ascension of novi homines ("new men," usually provincials) into Roman politics. Cicero, a strong supporter of the optimates' cause, was himself a novus homo, being the first in his family to enter the Senate, and was never fully accepted by the optimates. During the Civil War of 49BC, Julius Caesar, of a respectable old family, contended against a Senate championed by Pompey the Great.
In addition to their political aims, the optimates opposed the extension of Roman citizenship, and sought the preservation of the mos maiorum, the ways of their forefathers. They sought to prevent successful generals, such as Gaius Marius, Pompey the Great, and Julius Caesar, from using their armies to accrue such power that they might be in a position to challenge the Senate. They opposed Marius' plan to enlist impoverished Romans, too poor to provide their own arms and supplies in the legions, and the generals' attempts to settle these veterans on state-owned land.
Read more about this topic: Optimates
Famous quotes containing the word views:
“No work of art ever puts forward views. Views belong to people who are not artists.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman’s sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. Men have various employments and pursuits which engage their attention, and give a character to the opening mind; but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves, seldom extend their views beyond the triumph of the hour.”
—Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)
“Parents must begin to discover their children as individuals of developing tastes and views and so help them be, and see, themselves as thinking, feeling people. It is far too easy for a middle-years child to absorb an over-simplified picture of himself as a sloppy, unreliable, careless, irresponsible, lazy creature and not much more—an attitude toward himself he will carry far beyond these years.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)