Conclusion

Decades of archaeological research in the city of Rome have demonstrated the centrality of buildings and monuments for our understanding of how Roman politics - both formal and informal - worked and illustrated how changes in public space can be seen to reflect the changing nature of politics in the mid - and late Republic. Future topographical work will continue to correct and amplify our knowledge of the public monuments of the city - and provide surprises too, no doubt. At the same time, a comparative approach to the history of the city has highlighted the existence of hierarchies below the political elite: the degree to which ‘‘rich’’ and ‘‘poor’’ interrelated to a great extent tends to reflect these hierarchies. Ideologically, there was a close relationship between Senate and People, and aspiring politicians relied on popular support to gain advancement. In practice, however, it was the upper echelons of the urban plebs with which the elite had the closest links: these were the men who voted in the higher classes of the comitia centuriata, were guests when feasts and games were arranged by the elite, and might live in accommodation owned by their patrons. Where those below this privileged category lived under the Republic is less clear;87 and the role of the collegia in the lives of those without direct access to elite support would also repay further investigation. It is likely, however, that the poorest inhabitants of the city, migrants in particular, would have had limited contact with the upper classes except perhaps on the periphery of the city, where beggars accosted affluent passersby and the tombs of the aristocracy and the shacks of the homeless existed in close proximity.