jats:pThe Late Republican villa acted as a scene for the projection and contestation of moral values. Villas continued a long-standing association between the physical appearance and the concept of the house, on the one hand, and the moral positioning of its owner, on the other. Ancestral homes in particular proved symbolically salient mechanisms for claims of identity. In a Late Republic characterised by the extension of citizenship and influx of new wealth, this moral and socio-political representation became more contested. Physically and conceptually at some distance from Rome, rural estates provided a canvas for self-definition by old landed aristocrats andjats:italicnouveaux riches</jats:italic>alike, on which the boundaries of an ever-changing ‘elite’ were sketched, as well as the sense of belonging to that élite.</jats:p>