Balic’s nobles are known as patricians. The patrician class is composed of the leading landowning families; each family owns a slave-worked estate of grain fields, vineyards, olive groves, and pastures in the lands west of the city. Many of Balic’s most prestigious public offices, such as military command and important templar positions, can be filled only by candidates of the patrician class, so the families amass a great deal of influence by placing their sons and daughters in public service.
The dictator theoretically governs with the consent of the Chamber of Patricians (a legislative body made up of representatives from each family), but in practice, the patricians rarely challenge Andropinis. A charge of treason, justified or not, is all the excuse the dictator needs to strip a patrician family of its lands and offices and redistribute them elsewhere