Contemptuous “homo novus”

Homo novus was a disrespectful term used in ancient Rome for people who, for the first time in a family, took office enabling them to sit in the senate.

Such homo novus was, for example, Gaius Marius and Marcus Tullius Cicero to whom, despite the respect he enjoyed, he was often reminded a non-senatorial origin.

Already in antiquity, the term homo novus became synonymous of the upstart.

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Cicero Gaius Marius Wars of second triumvirate Lucius Licinius Lucullus Gaius Julius Caesar