Although parvenus are promoted by even the best of emperors, the senatorial families average much older than do the equestrian; and it is still a very desirable thing to boast of “ancient blood and the painted visages of one’s forebears.” =136. The Senatorial Aristocracy Greater than the Senate.=--The “Senatorial Aristocracy,” nevertheless, is something greater than the actual membership of the great council itself. Not merely the sons but all the male descendants of a senator to the third degree are reckoned as equal socially to the actual “Conscript Fathers,” though many such connections dress merely as equites with the narrow stripe. This may be from “lack of ambition” or it may be from desire to engage in trade. Gratia has two brothers. One is a senator, his wealth invested in lands, and at present he is imperial legate over part of Britain. The second is technically only an eques, busy with enormous financial transactions with Alexandria; but the second is the richer and probably the more influential man of the two. Of course, all the wives of senators rank with their husbands, and every cousin, niece, or nephew of the latter feels a reflected luster. The six hundred senators are, therefore, the center of an upper aristocracy with at least six thousand actual members. =137. Insignia, Qualifications, and Titles of Senators.=--The actual senators make no concealment of their honors. They have their special shoes (see p. 95), and most important of all they have the broad purple stripe running down the front of their tunics, the precious _laticlave_, distinguishing them instantly from the equites. Nobody, furthermore, can be enrolled as senator unless he possesses the taxable fortune of at least 1,000,000 sesterces ($40,000); and this insures that he is a passing rich man, above petty bribes and able to live with the dignity becoming a Lord of the Empire. The public glories of these dignitaries match their fortunes. At all the public games and spectacles the senatorial tiers are directly behind the Emperor’s loge. In the public feasts the senators are not merely entitled to the seats of honor, but frequently to extra-generous portions of the food. If a senator tours the provinces, he can command every kind of servile attention, even if the Emperor refuses him the “right of free legation”--the privileges of traveling with the honors of an ambassador. Finally if he is arrested, not merely is he ordinarily tried before his peers--in the Senate; he is subject to much lighter penalties than the run of citizens in case of conviction.[76]