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Plebeians And Patricia Research Paper

621 Words3 Pages

Introduction

I will be describing who the patricians and the plebeians are, their economic status, their political differences, and what led to the first plebeian revoltas I write on in this essay. The strife between the two class, orders is important in Roman history since the end result of the two coming together ballowed Rome to become as powerful as it did become.

The Patricians

The patricians were the direct descendants of the old Roman families. “Patrician” comes from the Latin word “patre” meaning “fathers” (Patricians, n.d.), and they had full political rights. Patricians could vote in the assembly or be chosen for Senate, and they were originally the only ones who could serve in the military (Morey, 1901, chapter 5, para. 2). …show more content…

They were mostly made up of people who were conquered by Rome or refugees who came to Rome (Morey, 1901, chapter 5, para. 3). Like in other civilizations, the lower class of the plebeians outnumbered the patrician class. The plebeians also did not enjoy the same privileges as the patricians. They were not citizens, they couldn’t vote, they couldn’t hold political office, and they were not allowed to marry outside their class (Morey, 1901, chapter 5, para. 3).

Tarquinius Priscus further divided the plebeians by creating an upper-lower class, the lesser gentes, who were lower than the patricians but higher than the plebeians. He also subjected the plebeians to taxation and allowed them military service (Morey, 1901, chapter 5, para. 4-5). At first glance, this seems like a step in the right direction, but the plebeians are essentially being forced to diverge more money to the aristocratic oligarchy and serve in their wars. One of the main problems for the plebeians was while they were away fighting the wars of the patricians, their farms and livelihood perished, thus causing them to become debtors to the patricians as well (Gill, 2017, para. …show more content…

5). Since the Plebeians made up most of the Roman population, the Patricians realized they could not afford to lose the Plebeians, else they could not endure war with their enemies. The revolt led to many changes: debtors were released from their collectors, two tribunes were appointed to counteract the Patrician magistrate, a permanent Plebeian assembly was created, and Spurius Cassius attempted to pass an agrarian law to right the unequal land distribution (Morey, 1901, chapter 7, para.

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