In the period after the Bona Dea scandal, during 60 bc in particular, Clodius engaged in a sustained effort to encompass a change from patrician to plebeian status, with the tribunate in his sights. A transition of this sort undoubtedly was possible, but both available mechanisms had certain complications, which are far from clear today. Eventually Clodius achieved his goal of becoming plebeian not through the procedure of transitio ad plebem, but through a form of adoption, the adrogatio.

background on transitio ad plebem

It is unfortunate that our best evidence about transitio involves Clodius himself, and his attempt to employ it was unsuccessful. Some consideration of other known cases of transitio ad plebem is required (cf. Smith [2006] 213).

The transitio ad plebem was used either by individuals or gentes to enable them to qualify specifically for the tribunate or to widen their eligibility for office (Botsford [1909] 162). The earliest attested cases are highly contentious and may reflect events of the late Republic rather than their ostensible timeframe. Suetonius says that the Octavii were raised to the patriciate by Servius Tullius but subsequently transferred back to plebeian status, until Octavian's father, an equestrian from Velitrae (modern Velletri), was given patrician status once more by Julius Caesar. This seems to be a reflection of the process of faking genealogy, a fiction linking the previously obscure municipal family to the origins of the city (Suet. Aug. 2.1; Carter [1982] 91).