An "eques" or knight in Cicero's time became so, or might become so, by being in possession of a certain income.

The title conferred no nobility.

The plebeian, it will be understood, could not become patrician, though he might become noble--as Cicero did.

The patrician must have been born so--must have sprung from the purple of certain fixed families.[32] Cicero was born a plebeian, of equestrian rank and became ennobled when he was ranked among the senators because of his service among the high magistrates of the Republic.

As none of his family had served before him, he was "novus homo," a new man, and therefore not noble till he had achieved nobility himself.