The dregs of Romulus.

Cicero’s phrase (in Latin typically rendered as something like “faex Romuli,” i.e., “the dregs/scum of Romulus”) is a contemptuous jibe that invokes Rome’s mythical founder to shame contemporary Romans. By calling someone “the dregs of Romulus,” Cicero suggests they are the lowest, most degraded residue of the Roman people—unworthy heirs of the city’s founding ideals. The insult works by contrast: Romulus symbolizes Rome’s origin and civic grandeur, while “dregs” implies moral filth and social refuse. In Cicero’s political rhetoric, such language is meant to delegitimize opponents as not merely mistaken but fundamentally base, corrupt, and alien to true Roman virtue.