A positive shock to a society’s supply of human capital can come from exogenous and unanticipated immigration. One such case arose from Louis XIV’s precipitous revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which forced French Calvinists – Huguenots – to convert or to flee. Many fled to the Protestant regions of Germany, where – owing to the Huguenots’ renowned expertise and entrepreneurship – they contributed greatly to subsequent economic development. Only some of Germany’s many Protestant cities, however, welcomed the refugees. Analysis of sixty cities’ attitudes contradicts the idea that powerful guilds opposed, or that pre-existing human capital favored, the admission of the Huguenots. Rather, a city was likelier to welcome them the closer it lay to a major trade route, or the more of its population it had lost in the Thirty Years’ War. Territorial rulers almost unanimously welcomed the Huguenots and often compelled reluctant cities to admit them. Animated by the ideas of Seckendorff, rulers saw in the Huguenots both a welcome influx of human capital and a way to undermine the craft guilds, which Seckendorff regarded as a major impediment to economic growth.

The record for the consular fasti of the Mid-Republic, as one of our more reliable sources for the period, offers valuable insight into who was in power at a crucial time for the transition of Rome from city-state to territorial empire. It has been recognized at least since Münzer that many family names in the lists were not originally from Rome, but instead from other Italian communities. The chapter attempts to take systematic stock of this important phenomenon by means of an analysis of the origins of all the known consular families of the time in order to track the emergence, persistence, and long-term trajectory of each family. The ability of elite families to join the highest echelons of Roman politics from various parts of Italy can be seen as a key process that characterizes the early phases of Roman expansion. The quantity of new consular families arguably represents a measure of power-sharing arrangements that were put in place vis-à-vis other Italians, potentially illuminating diplomatic interactions that have often been underestimated. In short, an important flipside of this great historical transition can be revealed, emphasizing the role played by Italian elites in the Mid-Republican conquest.

The family of the Manlii Torquati were famous for their severity and discipline, including one especially famous case where a father ordered his son’s execution for disobeying orders. One member of this family was a friend of Catullus, who wrote a marriage-poem for him; this poem contains allusions to the family tradition of filicide. This man’s son was a friend of Horace’s, who wrote a poem addressed to him in which the family tradition of father executing son is alluded to.