• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Class Structure - BC 508 - BC 264 Early Republic

From the very earliest period the inhabitants of Rome appear to have been divided into two classes, the patricians and the plebeians or plebs, with whom probably may be ranked the class of clients. It was the patricians alone that constituted the state; the plebs had no political rights whatsoever. In fact early Rome should be regarded as consisting of two isolated communities, one comprising the original settlers or, possibly, the conquerors of the city, the other the conquered population and later immigrants, such as those attracted to Rome by the excellent opportunities for trade it offered.

Not only was the political power in the hands of the patricians, but even the early Roman religion was largely in the nature of a narrow national creed to which the plebs could not be admitted. Intermarriage between members of the populus and plebeians was forbidden. The patricians alone had the right to bear arms. Within the populus or state, the headship was vested in the rex or king, who combined in himself the functions of war leader, judge and priest, and was assisted by a council of elders or senate. The Roman "people* were divided into wards, class or gens, and households. When assembled for the exercise of its sovereign powers it was known as the comitia curiata.

A change in the relations between patricians and plebs was effected by a reform which legend ascribes to Servius Tullius. By this innovation the right of bearing arms was conferred on the plebs, and the entire free-holding Roman community was divided into five classes, on the basis of wealth. These classes were subdivided into centuries or "hundreds," and the entire military assembly of the inhabitants bore the name of comitia centuriata, which, instituted undoubtedly for purposes of national defense, soon came to exercise important political powers.

The place of the kings was taken after 509 by two consuls, elected by the comitia centuriata from the ranks of the patricians. The institution of the senate was retained and plebeians were admitted to membership, but all magisterial offices were closed to members of that order. The period that follows, therefore is marked by a bitter struggle on the part of the plebeians for political and, to a degree, social equality. Wealth, too, became concentrated in the hands of the patricians and the distribution of the public lands was carried on entirely in the interests of the ruling class. Discontent was also fostered by the severity of the laws against debtors.

In 494 the plebeian army, just returned from a victorious campaign, seceded to the Sacred Mount, near Rome, and threatened to found a city for themselves unless concessions were made. The patricians yielded and the office of tribune of the plebs was created for the defense of the interests of the lower order against the ruling class. These tribunes, originally two in number, later increased to 10, were given the right of veto on the decisions of the consuls and the senate. In the course of the struggle for an equitable division of the public land, Spurus Cassius, a patrician who espoused the cause of the plebs, fell a victim to the vengeance of his caste (486 BC).

The demand for a codification of the laws led to the appointment in 4S1 of 10 decemvirs who after two years' work brought forth the Twelve Tables in which the entire system of public and private law was embodied. The act of violence attempted by Appius Claudius, head of the decemvirs, on the plebeian maiden Virginia led to the overthrow of the decemvirs in 449 BC. Protected now against the arbitrary misuse of the law on the part of the patricians, the plebeians pursued with renewed strength the struggle for political and social equality. In 445 intermarriage between patricians and plebeians was made legally valid. The consuls were supplanted by military tribunes with consular power who might be chosen from among the plebeians.

After this the plebeian conquest of offices proceeded steadily. The quaestorship was gained in 421 BC, the dictatorship in 356 BC, the censorship in 351, the praetorship in 337. After a 10 years' struggle it was provided by the so-called Licinian Rogations (367 BC) that no citizen should own more than 500 jugera of the public domain, that the remainder should be distributed among the plebs in small allotments. The consulship was also restored and it was made obligatory for one consul to be chosen from the plebs. By the year 300 complete equality between the orders had been established. The termination of the contest between the two orders may be assigned to the year 286 BC, when the Hortensian Law made any decree of the Comitia Tribute, wherein the plebs were predominant, law for the whole people, the so-called plebsicite.