How Did The Plebeians Build Social Class In Ancient Rome

In the 5th century B.C., Rome was one of the most advanced civilizations in their time for their inventions such as aqueducts and military skill in their style of battle, however there were still problems and one of the major ones was with the social classes.

At the time Romans decided to break their people up into three classes: patricians, plebeians, and slaves. Well, patricians were not only the high class but also those that were natively born in Rome. The plebeians were both the lower class and those that were not native to Rome but was still a citizen. Then the slave class consisted of those that were conquered during war or even Roman families (usually to keep loved ones fed or on the straight-and-narrow) that would generally have jobs

Meaning the plebeians (and slaves) were the common people that took up most of the population, but the patricians saw themselves as the aristocratic people that had to rule over everyone else. Although, that would also mean that the plebeians had no representation in the governmental system in the slightest and couldn’t present their own problems that they had in the general community. Well the plebeians made up most of the Roman military as well as did all the agricultural production (harvesting and growing of food). So, in a revolt the plebeians withdrew from battle/war to the Aventine hill and refused to continue fighting unless they got some type of representation in the Republic. What happened next resulted in the patricians compromising with the plebeians in creating a new section in the government called Tribunes where the plebeians could finally represent themselves and have the power to make sure the common people were being treated fairly. To be apart of the Tribunes you would have to be elected by the Assembly (consisted of only men) which was basically groups of citizens that were ranked on militarily statuses. Even though the plebeians got their representation that they wanted there was still a lot of

Unfortunately, all the money went to the patricians and little to none went to the plebeians. Meaning the rich got richer and the poor poorer, so poor in fact that many plebeians had to sell their farms and even themselves into slavery. This era was caused a monumental increase in the slave population. Then the Gracchi brothers (Tiberius and Gaius) came with Tiberius being elected into the Tribune. They wanted to establish a new balance and asked the patricians to spread the wealth and even free those that were forced to go into slavery to survive However, the plebeians didn’t want to have anything to do with giving up what they believed to rightfully own and keep all the money and land to themselves in a wide spread of greed. The class system now consisted of mostly the two classes of patricians and slaves (very few plebeians were free from debt). There were many battles of revolt that lead the Gracchi brothers to go into hiding because the patricians viewed them as a threat that would take way the power that they had in government. Although, the chase caught up with them both being assassinated. Similarly, to the Gracchi brothers, Julius Caesar appeared as a beacon of hope for the common people. What was strange however was that Caesar was a patrician himself who indeed sympathized for the plebeians