Quote Originally Posted by Jebus
You might be overestimating the level of meritocracy the Romans had... Plebeians without rich parents had an almost impossible time getting anywhere in Roman politics, while family of rich and powerful patricians had it way easier to at least get into the Senate - no matter how dumb they were. Cicero being able to pull off what he did in Roman politics (playing the Senate like a bunch of puppets, mostly) seems to be a good example of that. Therefore, 'the Romans squeezing out a baby or two' still seems fairly realistic to me.

*EDIT* Also, since adoption candidates in the game are usually pretty crappy (for Rome at least), any meritocracy isn't really reflected in that system.
We're not depicting the entire Senate, just the main powers of each faction, as family members. Sure, some of them aren't too great, but that's compared to other family members.

The Plebeian disadvantage is reflected in their -3 Influence penalty (it's very difficult for them to gain office or be appointed faction heir as a result).

A baby or two here or there isn't a problem for me, either, the next patch will actually make babies more common among the Patricians at first, and fix another issue with suitors that was preventing Pats from marrying your daughters.


Quote Originally Posted by SwordsMaster
What he means is, the "plebeius" trait comes up way too often in adoptees. Even if elected by their merits they would still be mostly patricians. The composition of the Senate: 300 ish patricians +2 plebs tribuni is fairly illuminating.
At this time, there were more than just plebeian tribunes representing plebeians in the Senate. The Aedile, Consul and Censor positions were split between plebs and patricians.