Both created new visual frameworks for legitimacy — not inherited, but displayed through personal merit and visibility. In Rome, to be seen was to be believed.
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➡️ Marius turned his battle scars into his imagines, presenting his war wounds as earned nobility and proof of service.
➡️ Cicero, lacking both ancestry and scars, embodied shared civic ancestors (maiores nostris) and made his public presence and availability a substitute for family prestige.

Emily Salamanca’s article, “Reimagining Political Legitimacy: Ancestral Imagines in the Consular Speeches of Marius and Cicero,” explores how Rome’s novi homines — like Marius and Cicero — redefined this visual tradition.

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