L'éthique et la statistique. À propos du renouvellement du Sénat romain (Ier-llle siècles de l'Empire)

Ethics and Statistics. A new theory has recently been proposed to explain the rather rapid turnover in the Early Roman Empire senate, sustaining that the majority of senators' sons chose not to pursue political careers. But the arguments usually put forward (e.g. involving demographic factors, or the perils and risks of political life) could suffice here. In particular, senators' sons had to compete with new men who were the Emperor's proteges in the race for the consulate and in order to become part of the Senatorial elite; nothing contradicts the notion that some of them may have simply accepted less illustrions positions out of necessity. Aside from the absence of supporting documentation, the main hurdle for this theory comes from the System of family values which pressured the inheritor to maintain the luster of thefamily name and, when possible, to increase it.Jacques François. L'éthique et la statistique. À propos du renouvellement du Sénat romain (Ier-llle siècles de l'Empire). In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 42ᵉ année, N. 6, 1987. pp. 1287-1303