The patricians in the beginning of Roman government were the higher class. After the fall of kings ruling the government and then Rome deciding to going to a republic form of government, this upper class of men ruled the Roman government and people. Patricians were usually rich and wealthy individuals that came from a long line of wealthy families. Most patricians lived in the Roman walls, this was very common for wealthy patricians and the poorer citizens lived in the country side. These patricians controlled and highly influenced the direction of laws. Although, there were a set of laws for all citizens had to follow, this including the patricians, they always seemed to benefit the higher up class of people. These laws were actually never written down either but instead handed down from patrician to patrician. This made and helped them adjust certain laws when needed to stay in control and continue to stay extremely wealthy. For the lower class of people, the plebeian citizens continued to only become poorer and in more debt to the patricians.
Plebeian citizens of Rome were the lowest class. They were the poor that usually lived outside of the Roman walls in other small cities or as farmers. Although, they were poor and never really held public office in the beginning there were by far more plebeian citizens than patrician citizens. However, with the patricians holding all the control in the government the mass population of Rome was never taken care of. The hardest part