How Fair Was Life In The Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was a very hierarchical society. Whether a person was a plebeian, a slave, a patrician, a child, a woman or a senator, one persons life was typically very different from another persons life. Because of this, different people were treated either very fairly or other people had little to no rights at all. So this raises the question; how fair was life in the era of the Roman Republic?

On one side of the spectrum, we have the life of a slave. Slaves in the Roman republic were not treated very fairly. For example, some common punishments for slaves are being whipped, branded with a hot iron, and some even had body parts cut off. These punishments would typically happen if the slaves weren’t doing their work properly, they tried

While their lives weren’t as unfair as the life of a slave, they still didn’t have all of the privileges and rights that other people did. One example is the education rate in women in the Roman Republic. In most families, only the men were educated. Women were only educated if they were in a wealthier family, or had some sort of home-tutor. However, around the time the boys would move onto secondary school, the women were taken out of school and put into a marriage so they can become a housewife. Some other examples of women having an unfair life is what their life was like before the 2nd century A.D. Before the 2nd century A.D., women were segregated from their husbands in the home, had to have guardians, had to sit upright in a chair and they couldn’t even attend dinner parties. However, these regulations got suppressed over time. Now, their lives weren’t totally unfair. After the 2nd century, women were allowed out of the house a little more and they were able to get jobs such as tax collectors, doctors, painters, and most worked in clothing shops. Compared to the slaves, a womans life in the Roman Republic was pretty fair but in general, their lives were only kind of

Some people might argue that life in the Roman Republic was fair, but the really only look at the life of a plebeian, specifically the wealthier ones that had more free-reign on what they were allowed to do. The average plebeian’s life was pretty standard. Some plebeians were landlords, made baked goods to sell, worked on farms, fought in the military and one plebeian was picked out to be apart of the consul. As far as everyday life for a plebeian, they would usually work or go to school (depending on age), and then they would go home and have dinner, while the wealthier plebeians would go out to dinner parties. In general, plebeian life was pretty fair compared to other people's lives in the Rome