I have been looking all over the Internet for information on the Plebeians for a report. However what I have gotten is pretty dry so if you feel so inclined please post information you have, especially if it's interesting.
Printable View
I have been looking all over the Internet for information on the Plebeians for a report. However what I have gotten is pretty dry so if you feel so inclined please post information you have, especially if it's interesting.
OK a few notes for you m8
- The plebeians were the merchants, farmers, and artisans of Rome. They were allowed to vote, but only Patricians were allowed in the senate. In 471BC, the plebeians elected a tribune. Ten men represented the plebeians against any political oppression by the consuls or the patricians. By 287BC, the laws passed by the plebeians were binding for all Romans, including the patricians
- (plbz) (KEY) or plebeians (plb´nz) (KEY) [Lat. plebs=people], general body of Roman citizens, as distinct from the patrician class. They lacked, at first, most of the patrician rights, but with the establishment of the tribune of the people in the 5th cent. B.C., they gradually achieved political equality with the patricians. First marriage of plebeians with patricians was validated, then plebeians were admitted successively over several decades to the quaestorship, the consulate, the dictatorship, the censorship, and the praetorship; they finally obtained the important priestly offices of the pontificate and augurship in 300 B.C. With the blurring of the distinction between the two classes, from this time the name plebs passed to the lowest ranks of the people.
- Good article from PBS
http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/social/social4.html
http://www.bible-history.com/rome/farmer.gif
- a forum thread talking about it
Plebeians and Patricians at the crossroads
- Plebeians, often referred to "Plebs", were the common people of Roman society.
This is to set them apart from the Patricians, who were the rich land owners the Plebs came to to for assistance. From them, we get the concept of "patrons", as these wealthy men relied on the Plebs for votes in election times. So you had Plebs getting support from (or being "patronised" by) a particular Patrician, that is receiving financial help and such, and in return rallying around their patron in election times. This system is a precursor to the feudal system that would begin in the lands outside Rome after its sacking by the Vandals (without the rule of Rome to keep them in check, Patricians kept their own armies and warred with one another over land).
Other classes existed in Roman culture, like the Equestrian order, military, and Senatorial nobility, as well as more humble ones like merchants and artisans. However, Plebeians were the common folk at the bottom, just above non-citizens and slaves.
The term "Plebs" is used today to denote the masses, the common people, even the poor (as opposed to the middle-class and such).
- Conflict of Orders: Fifth to Fourth Centuries BCE
Patricians:
In early Rome, the patricians (patricii) were a highly privileged aristocratic class of Roman citizens; membership in this class was hereditary and could be achieved only by birth until the end of the Republic. The name probably stems from the Latin word patres, “fathers,” which was applied to the earliest members of the Roman Senate, from whom the patrician clans claimed descent.
Plebeians:
The plebeians (plebei, from plebs, “common people”) were all the Roman citizens who were not patricians. Originally, patricians were forbidden to marry plebeians, so there was no possibility of movement from one order to another.
The history of the development of the Roman system of government is based on the struggle for power between these two classes (ordines, hence our word “orders”). In the early years of the Roman Republic, patricians controlled all the religious and political offices; plebeians had no right of appeal against decisions of the patrician government, since no laws were codified or published. The struggle of the plebeians to gain rights and an opportunity for advancement within Roman society and political structures is known as “the conflict of orders.” The one advantage plebeians had over patricians lay in their numbers, and they used this effectively through the strategy of secession (secessio), withdrawal or the threat of withdrawal from the Roman state during times of crisis. Here are some of the major landmarks in the conflict of orders, which was largely bloodless and free of violence:
494 BCE: traditional date of the First Secession of the Plebs, during which they established their own assembly (the Concilium Plebis) and elected their own magistrates, the Tribunes and the Plebeian Aediles.
450 BCE: traditional date of the Law of the Twelve Tables, the first cod
What was essentially won during the conflict of orders was the breakdown of an aristocracy of birth and its replacement with an aristocracy that was based on the holding of political offices and on wealth, particularly land-based wealth. The conflict did not destroy the hierarchical, class-based nature of Roman society, nor did it greatly improve the lives or the prospects of the poorer segments of society.
- The Roman republic
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ROME/REPUBLIC.HTM
- 287 BCE || The third secession of the plebeians
As the primary sources for this event are either lost or lacking, the actual events and their consequences are largely conjecture. What we do know is that for the first time, a plebeian, Quintus Hortensius, was made dictator. The rank of dictator in this instance is constitutional and was subject to legal restrictions, and is not to be confused with the later dictatorships of Sulla, Julius Caesar, or the contemporary use of the term.
- ROMAN MAGISTRATES
http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/romanmagistrates.html[/url]
- Describe and explain the evolution of the Roman Republican Constitution from its origin to 31 BC (battle of Actium)
http://www-scf.usc.edu/~erdemoz/Html/essay5a.htm