The Plight of the Plebeians

The Plight of the Plebeians

Michael Ohl
University of the People

The Plight of the Plebeians

Introduction
In Ancient Rome the citizens were generally divided into two different yet distinct groups. The
aristocrats were the wealthy and nobility of the people who had all the advantages of society from the
start. Then the plebeians were the common man and every day man who had the right to vote and hold
property but not to hold office. The aristocrats were known as the patricians and they kept many rights
from the plebeians for as long as possible in order to maintain control, in the days of the formation of
the republic after the defeat of the old kings the ruled the city. The plebeians generally were farmers or
poorer by background and they came to resent the rule of the way things were ultimately leading up to
the first secession or secessio plebis.
Breakdown of the Roman tribes
The early history of Rome saw the creation of two social classes, the fewer numbered but
powerful tribes and the greater numbered but lesser in power plebeians. Gary Forsythe described this
with saying, The patricians constituted a closed group of specific aristocratic clans, whereas all other
clans in Roman society were classified as plebeians (2006). These two classes of people were vastly
different inside of Rome. The patricians were the only ones in the beginning to hold public office and
indeed they even kept the laws of the city to themselves without writing them down of making it
common knowledge in the beginning (Plebs, n.d.).
Economic differences
The wars to free themselves of the kings left the plebeians poor and borrowing from the
patricians to survive. The plebeians lived mostly in the country where their property could not be
protected by the city walls during the wars. Their land would be unkempt or even sacked by the
enemies during this time and they were left with very little. Then came the Law of Debt. This was a
law that made debtors an even lower class of citizen than the plebeians already were. This led to them
being jailed or sold into slavery if they could not pay their debt (Morey, 1901).

The Plight of the Plebeians

Political Differences
During the beginnings of the republic patricians held the majority of the political power, they
held all offices while none were given to the plebeians to fill. The only right the plebeians were given
was the right to vote. The patricians even held all the religious offices which at the time were important
and tied into Roman politics, further ostracizing the plebs (Forsythe, 2006). This uneven divide was
hard on the plebeian people and they were growing just as restless with the republic as they were the
monarchy before it.
Uneven Rights to the Public Domain
The last divide between the two classes comes with the divisions of the land for public use.
After the wars to rid Rome of the monarchy there was large bits of land that now belonged to all the
people. The patricians however saw that differentially as they controlled the government. As Morey
stated, [] they disposed of this land for their own benefit; they allowed it to be 'occupied,' at a
nominal rent (1901). This land was not able to be sold as it was public land and they reaped the
benefits giving little to the plebs and keeping as much has possible for themselves.
Conclusion
All these differences lead to a conflict between the two classes of Roman citizens. The
economic plights brought by the war hurt the plebs. The difference in political power kept them feelnig
inferiors. And finally the division of the lands left them with little to nothing to show for their liberation
from the ruling class. They merely traded one king for a group of tyrants.
References
Morey, W. (1901). Outlines of Roman History, Chapter 7. Retrieved May 7, 2015, from
http://www.forumromanum.org/history/morey07.html
Plebs. (n.d.). Retrieved May 7, 2015, from http://www.digplanet.com/wiki/Plebs
Forsythe, G. (2006). Patricians and Plebeians. In A critical history of early Rome from prehistory to the

The Plight of the Plebeians

first Punic War. Berkeley: University of California Press.