I know this is rather vague and please forgive me if this has been asked before, but I'm a big fan of shows and movies set during this time period.
My personal favourite is "Rome" and (while I'm sure there are some/many historical inaccuracies), something that has always struck me is the seemingly highly stratified nature of Roman society and the power of the nobles over those of lesser rank.
Can anyone tell me more/ recommend any books about the social structure of Rome during this period? I'm especially interested in the noble (patrician?) class. How many people would have belonged to each rung of society?
Edit: Also, how rich (in today's terms) would someone like Atia of the Julii (in the series Rome) be?
A noble person in Rome was simply anyone who had a recent ancestor elected to the Praetorship or consulship. The patrician/plebeian distinction was historical but by the end of the Republic it meant almost nothing. Crassus and Pompey were two of the richest men in Rome but were both plebs. Caesar, on the other hand, was a patrician but his family had not been very powerful or wealthy for a long time. Cicero had none of his ancestors elected to the consulship so when he got that position he was called a novus homo - a new man. In the late Republic most of the consuls were from noble families.
Below the nobles you had the equites, then you had ordinary Romans and then slaves.
Roman nobles had patronage relationships with ordinary Romans. You needed ordinary Romans to get elected and ordinary Romans needed stuff. A noble Roman family would start off its day being visited by their clients.