Giuseppe La Bua Homo novus and nobilis: Cicero and the formation of the ‘modern’ aristocracy 1 Introduction Cicero’s novitas, “newness”, is well known to have had a significant influence on the creation of the portrait of the republican orator and statesman and its prop- agation throughout the centuries. Conscious of what being a novus homo meant in the turbulent years of the late Republic, Cicero tried to overcome his lack of famous ancestors by devising a strategy of self-advertisement and political ad- vancement based on the exercise of personal virtues. Modern scholarship has long investigated the dichotomy between nobilis and homo novus, concentrating on Roman nobilitas, the class struggle and the role played by new men in Roman history and society.¹ The excellent book of Henriette van der Blom has shed light on Cicero’s discourse of novitas and his exploitation of historical and personal exempla to build up his public image of perfect orator and politician.² Less atten- tion has been paid to the impact exercised by Cicero homo novus on the birth and development of bourgeois values in later centuries.³ This paper revisits the role played by Cicero homo novus in the creation of a new ideal of nobility and argues that the status of Cicero as new man and new nobilis effected later reflections on human dignity and nobility throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Italian Renaissance. It starts by paying attention to Velleius Paterculus’ celebration of the homines novi (2.126 – 130). As Velleius demonstrates, alongside Marius, the bearer and interpreter of the new ideology of leadership, as he displays himself in Sallust’s fictional speech delivered before the Roman people after his election to consulship (Sall. Iug. 85),⁴ Cicero was held as the most representative example of political and rhetorical excellence, making up for his lack of ancestors by per- sonal merits. Then, it reconsiders later receptions of Cicero’s newness and the political re-use of Cicero’s self-portrait as homo novus over the centuries. To  Wiseman 1971; Burckhardt 1990; see also Shackleton Bailey 1986; Günther 2006; van der Blom 2010. On Cicero ’s self-portrait as homo novus in his oratorical and rhetorical works, see Dugan 2005 (also Bishop 2019, 3 – 7). For the integration of men of municipal origins into the political system of the late Republic, see Santangelo 2019.  Van der Blom 2010.  Van der Blom 2018 (on Cicero homo novus in the early imperial period).  On Marius’ speech in Sallust, see Yakobson 2014. OpenAccess. © 2022 Giuseppe La Bua, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110748703-008