Very interesting post, Maria, about patricians deriving from the early aristocracy and its priestly caste. It makes me wonder what influence the Etruscans (who after all, apparently ruled Rome for a few generations) had, with THEIR concepts of aristocrats and priests, on the native Romans they ruled. Unfortunately, I know very little about the Etruscans. But is there a connection - either that the Romans imitated the Etruscan upper classes, or because they rebelled against them?