History questions...

[divulse123]

I don't think it's too Marxist to say that there were pressures between the senators and the plebians, and that this produced a series of controversial issues (which individual politicians arranged themselves around in the manner you describe).

Quick point: Plebes could be senators. Saying there were pressures between the two groups does not yield sense.

[TheLand]

Quick point: Plebes could be senators. Saying there were pressures between the two groups does not yield sense.

Well, indeed. How would you phrase it?

[konny]

Well, indeed. How would you phrase it?

There was the old struggle between Patricians and Plebeians, what was more or less solved in our time frame by admitting Plebeians to all offices and the Senate. More recent was the struggle between Senators and Eques, or if you like, between the established nobility (including noble plebeian families) and the upstarts. This one is often refered to as "Populars vs. Optimats". This developed into the struggle between "Marians" and "Sullans". But these two factions were purley formed on personal linakge ending with, for example, the provincial upstarts Pompeius and Cicero on the side of the "Post-Sullan Optimates" and a member of the august house of Iulii, Caesar, as leader of the "Post-Marian Popular" faction.