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But half of the senates was Plebeian !
I speak in term of wealth, some plebeians were extremely rich...
I remember only of two generals of very humble origins, it's Cato ( the first ) and Marius.
Both were poor.
And they are the two only mens of so humble origins who came so far.
The Roman Empire wouldn't have lasted longer as a republic.
The rivalry between the senators were just too big.
Not to mention the bribery and assassination between them.
How can a group of men that kill and bribe each other rule an empire as big as the roman empire?
Like stated before: it could work well for one city but not for the whole empire.
The senate was originally set up to rule just a small little insignificant town called Rome anyway. How the senate managed to build up the republican empire in the first place with all that backstabbing I will never know. Also I will never know why the republic didn't fall apart because of Sulla and Marius.Quote:
Originally Posted by GreatEmperor
It is also important to note that pleb generals often misused their power often either becoming corrupt or trying to give the people a larger voice (that sort of thing caused the patricians and the senate to get tetchy). Marius was actually an lower class equestrian who was on the border line between becoming a pleb and becoming an equestrian, any claims that his father was a labourer were false.
:laugh4:
Remember that film called The Godfather. At some point the big guys meet at a table and settle things down for a bit. That's much how it was like 2050 - 2700 years ago.
Yeah then at the end of the movie, the son of one of the big guys at the table had the rest of the big guys at the table shot dead.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios
That's one of my favourite movies of all time BTW. :laugh4: