Internal Politics In Ancient Rome

There was lot of internal politics in Ancient Rome. Patrician families would seize all the public land for their own use, driving many small landowners into debt. The plebeians were constantly fighting for a greater say in the government, and finally, the first plebeian consuls were elected in 366 B.C. However, the patricians continued to control the Senate, sometimes taking ambitious plebeians into their ranks to achieve their aims. During the time of the Roman Republic, there was constant struggle between the rich patrician aristocracy and the plebeians who ranged from jobless laborers to wealthy landowners who did not belong to the noble class. While on the one hand the patricians tried to concentrate all political power in their hands,

The Roman aristocracy had to seek the support of the peasantry for defending the city and subsequently for expansion in Italy. Roman military organization was heavily dependent on the peasants who constituted the main fighting force. The army comprised unpaid soldiers who were primarily recruited from the peasantry. The soldiers had to supply their own fighting equipment. All able-bodied male adults had to render military service. As Rome began to expand, the need to have the support of the peasant soldiers increased. Initially, the peasantry derived some minor benefits from this expansion, but it was the patrician aristocracy that was the main beneficiary of the empire. The growth of the empire made the aristocracy wealthy and widened the gap between the rich and the poor. In the early phase of Roman expansion, the peasantry was able to extract major political concessions. Through these concessions a small section of the plebeians got some share in political power. The struggle between the aristocracy and the peasantry was a struggle between the patricians and the plebeians and is often referred to as the conflict of the

The impoverishment of the peasants had forced them to seek regular loans from the rich. If a Roman entered into a formal agreement or nexum while contracting a loan in which the debtor's person was pledged as security, failure to honor the agreement resulted in debt bondage. Debts incurred due to frequent participation in wars, as well as to meet diverse economic needs, had made indebtedness a chronic peasant problem. Debt bondage had allowed the landed aristocracy to acquire unfree labor for their estates. When the peasants and other poor people were unable to repay their loans they were enslaved. Nexum thus became a device for the big landowners to convert free peasants into unfree labor. The abolition of nexum was thus a crucial issue for the plebeians. In 326 B. C., a law was enacted which prohibited the enslavement of Roman citizens for non-repayment of debts. The peasants were victorious in their struggle against debt bondage but their fight for retaining possession over their land remained unsuccessful. The fourth, and politically the most significant, landmark in the conflict of the orders during the early Republic was a step taken in 287 B.C. which gave the plebeian Tribunes full-fledged magisterial powers. There seems to have been a serious crisis at this stage which culminated in another threat by the plebeians to withdraw from military service.