WORLD CIVILIZATION

Detailed explanation-1: -The word “patrician” comes from the Latin “patres”, meaning “fathers”, and these families provided the empire’s political, religious, and military leadership. Most patricians were wealthy landowners from old families, but the class was open to a chosen few who had been deliberately promoted by the emperor.

Detailed explanation-2: -Roman citizens were divided up into two distinct classes: the plebeians and the patricians. The patricians were the wealthy upper class people. Everyone else was considered a plebeian. The patricians were the ruling class of the early Roman Empire.