The late Empire was much different than the Empire at the time of the Augustan constitution.  All of the ruling groups of all of the cities through out the empire were Roman citizens, and the ambitious citizen had direct relations with Roman and all of the rights of citizenship.  I think the necessary question to ask is how did Roman citizenship come about in the first place.  It expanded through out the Republican period, and a number of wars were fought between Rome and  her allies for the right of Roman citizenship.  By the time of the late Republic all of the citizens of the cities of Latium and much of Cisapline Gaul were considered Roman Citizens.  But not only that Roman citizenship was often rewarded to various allies of Rome in all parts of the empire for services rendered to Rome, Thus individuals, ruling groups in towns and cities, and sometimes whole tribes and whole cities were awarded Roman citizenship.  The battle within Rome, among Senators and the people, concerning how these citizens would vote, which tribe they would be enrolled in, was part of the conflict between various elites and the populares through-out the late Republic.  Augustus finally rationalized much of this and incorporated much of the Empire, giving citizenship to all those who pledged loyalty to Rome.  But by then actual voting for the magistrates with-in Rome was not as meaningful.  To ask about the "multi-ethnicity" of the elite of the late empire is to focus on the wrong question.  By the time of the middle empire most of the ambition and energy of elite rule and reform came from outside of Rome.  The ruling class of each individual city in the empire was largely the administrative nodal point that held the empire together.  The direct connection between local elites and the Principate and other Roman Magistrates was what held the political structure of the empire together.  So perhaps your real question should be, Who were these local elites?  I am not very knowledgeable about the late Empire.  Ask me questions about the Republican period and the early Principate and I can answer your questions about who the elites were and where they came from. Jerry <div>On 4/12/07, Chris Doss <<a href="mailto:lookoverhere1@yahoo.com">lookoverhere1@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> There is such variety of knowledge among posters here, so I thought I would ask y'all: I was doing a kind of thought comparison of the Russian and Ottoman Empires and their internal structures, specifically the highly multiethnic structure of their elites (which I supposed is to be expected of contiguous land empires) as opposed to the European sea empires. Which leads me to ask: As far as we know, how multiethnic was the elite of the Roman Empire? (What the heck did "Roman" mean anyway in the late Empire? Someone of Italian birth?) Thanks! Vale! ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games. <a href="http://videogames.yahoo.com/platform?platform=120121">http://videogames.yahoo.com/platform?platform=120121 </a> ___________________________________ <a href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk">http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</a> </blockquote></div> -- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture <a href="http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/">http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/</a> His fiction, poetry, weblog is Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/">http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/</a> Notes, Quotes, Images - From some of my reading and browsing <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/">http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/</a>