Optimates (in Latin: best the ): aristocratic political tendency and preserving which marked the last century of the Roman République, by its opposition against the populares . It was not a political party with the modern direction, but a major cleavage in the political struggles and social Roman, making it possible to the political actors to position vis-a-vis the reformism and with the populism of the Populares within often moving personal alliances.

This tendency appears under this name in the years 130 av. J. - C., during the fights on the land reform of the Gracques. It is erased one century later with the end of the Roman République and the capacity of the Second triumvirate.

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Internal bonds

• Nobilitas