Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of or belonging to the optimates or nobility; noble.
- noun One of the optimates.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective rare, rare, rare Of or pertaining to the nobility or aristocracy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun historical A member of the
patrician ruling class in republican AncientRome ; anaristocrat , anoble .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Marius completely underestimated his optimate adversaries.
The Caesar Factor 2007
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His opponents retaliated by having the optimate tribune T. Annius Milo organize his own band of thugs.
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The popularis consul of 87, L. Cornelius Cinna, went to war with his optimate colleague and captured Rome with the support of Marius, who then began slaughtering his optimate enemies.
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He raised an army but was defeated in 77 by his optimate colleague, Q. Lutatius Catulus, and Pompey.
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L. Cornelius Sulla, a successful optimate general in the Social War and consul in 88, received the command against Mithridates.
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In Rome the tribune P. Clodius pursued a popularis program (e.g., free grain), thwarting optimate opposition with gangs of thugs organized under the guise of legitimate collegia (clubs).
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Caesar, as consul, employed Pompey's veterans to overcome violently optimate opposition.
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The Marian leader Q. Sertorius held optimate generals at bay in Spain.
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But the optimate senate, led by M. Porcius Cato, refused to ratify his eastern settlement and blocked a land bill for his veterans.
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He had tried to ensure senatorial rule and optimate supremacy against the challenges of tribunes and generals like himself.
Telofy commented on the word optimate
"(...) and the great families—then as now—preferred to inter their long-limbed dead in vaults on their own estates. But the armigers and optimates of the city favored the highest slopes, near the Citadel wall;" -- Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun
October 1, 2008