Similarities Between Patricians And Plebeians

528 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Women's roles in ancient roman society

Patricians and Plebeian Classes in Rome
The army in Rome was made up of Plebeians, they were in the frontier to fight for their country, but they didn’t get an equal or fair treatment. Patricians on the other hand were enjoyed the fruits of success by the whole Romans. Rome was not a democratic Rome, but an aristocratic Rome at that time. The unfairness between the Patricians and Plebeians made a conflict.
The Patricians were all lived in cities, where the walls would protect their property from their enemies. While the Plebeians were mainly lived in rural places, there were no walls. When the Plebeians were serving in the army, they didn’t have time to take care of their family and their little farms, their enemy might ravage and their families were driven away. Their scanty properties were deprived and destroyed. So the Plebeians were fallen into poverty and distress, and they can’t see any hope to change the situation. …show more content…

After the plebeians fell into extreme poverty, the only way they could do was to borrow money from the wealthy people, then they were reduced to debtors. If debtors can pay back the money they had borrowed, they were obliged to be arrested and put to jail. Even they were made the slave of their creditors. The most desperate thing was that it was to get out of the condition anymore, and made them a continual poverty situation.
The division of the public land which was acquired in wars was unjust. According to the law, the public land was shared by the whole Romans, but because the political unfairness, patricians controlled the government. The public land was controlled by patricians in fact, and plebeians didn’t get any benefits from them, although they had paid a lot of cost to acquire the land by serving in the army. This was another main reason why plebeians were so poor and

Show More
Related

  • Impact of the 1942 Beveridge Report on UK Welfare State: Policy Intervention

    1925 Words  | 4 Pages

    There was a growing sense that the poor did not deserve assistance and so in 1834 the ‘Poor Law Amendment Act’ was introduced. This was designed to make conditions more severe and to even further force self-improvement amongst the poor. ‘The central objective…was to withdraw poor relief from men judged ‘able-bodied’ in Poor Law terminology’. (Thane: 1978: 29) Alternatives such as the work-house were introduced. The notion that you should only ask for help if you desperately needed it as a last resource loomed. The Charity Organisation Society was ‘a body w...

    Read More

  • The Rise and Fall of Gaius Gracchus

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the early second century BC, the Roman Senate accrued a powerful ruling over the city’s civil government. Rome’s elite members lived at the heart of Rome and gave power to the members of the Senate. These elite citizens gained nobility through prior ancestors whom held consulships. With the prior influential heritage, they pushed the decisions of the Senate in order to gain more wealth and land. This often meant bribes, threats, and posturing to sway leaders to vote for laws that were favorable. This period did not last for long as for in the latter half of the second century growth in the cities occurred and meant change for the patrician nobility. Tribunes, such as Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus used this change to enforce social policies that were in favor of the plebeians, but also their eventual downfall.

    Read More

  • Lycurgus' Economic Reforms The Ancient Brady Bunch

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    For there was an extreme inequality amongst them, and their state was overloaded with a multitude of indigent and necessitous persons, while its whole wealth centered upon a very few. To the end therefore, that he might expel from the state arrogance and envy, luxury and crime, and those yet more inveterate diseases of want and superfluity (Plutarch 9).

    Read More

  • Attitude Toward the Poor in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

    664 Words  | 2 Pages

    help" so the poor had not a lot of help with money or equipment to get

    Read More

  • The Roman Military Reforms institued by Gaius Marius

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... middle men between the troops and the Senate, and were looked on by their soldiers as looking out for their best interests. The soldiers relied on their general to give them what they needed, be it arms and armour, pay or land to retire on, and in return the generals wanted loyalty from their troops. As the legions were firmly in control of their generals, they were content to become a threat to the Republic and willing to become akin to private armies, following Generals such as Sulla to march on Rome or other generals.

    Read More

  • The Poor Dbq

    977 Words  | 2 Pages

    In fact, many believed the poor were just worthless idlers who were not even trying to better there own situations, but instead were taking the high roads away from taxes and worries (Document 11). There were many observed instances in which those in poverty, when given the opputinity to better their lives, chose to stay poor and recieve handouts. One such cause comes from William Turner, and English Physican for Lord Earl of Somerset when he recounts how poor folks often begged on the Earl's door but when Turner offered to help health wise, they chose to stay sick and beg (Document 6). Similar to modern day abusers of the American Wellfare system, officals became very angry with idlers who did nothing but feed off the wealth of the working class in the form of alms. They even believed that idlers should be expelled from their communites as they only bring economics down (Document 5). Many also thought that in order received any aid at all a person must be working. Reforms such as the Workhouse Test Act in 1723, though this occured later than the period of discussion, were a result of these opinions. This act, among others, required that people work a set amount of hours before they could receive any aid. Even the famous Cardinal Richelieu of France believed that the idlers were “good-for-nothings” who were restricting those who actually needed help from getting it while they were being lazy and greedy (Document 8). This opinion of certain poor indivudals being lazy and abusing resources remains amoung those in power even today in

    Read More

  • Roman government VS American government

    632 Words  | 2 Pages

    While these countries did not thrive in the same era they have similarities, but more importantly they have differences. Their governments were set up differently America as a democracy, and Rome a republic. They both had a rich class, middle class, and a slave class. However, it was how they treated each class which made these governments so different. While in America the wealthy class ran the government, in Rome both high and middle classes were part of government. Rome’s citizens had more legal rights, higher social mobility, and treated their slaves better. Rather than in America which gave its citizens fewer rights by excluding members who do not own the required property, had lower social mobility, and treated slaves much worse than the Romans.

    Read More

  • The Political Decay of the Roman Republic

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Political Decay of the Roman Republic The fall of the Western Roman Empire was the first example in history on the collapse of a constitutional system which was caused by the internal decay in political, military, economics, and sociological issues. The government was becoming corrupt with bribery. Commanders of the Roman army turned their own army inward towards their own Constitutional systems, fueled by their own ruthless ambition. This paper will talk about how the violence and internal turmoil in 133 B.C.-27 B.C. was what provoked the economic stagnation in the city of Rome and to the end of the Republic and the many corrupt politicians and generals who only thought of nothing more than personal gains and glory. The senate lost control of the Roman military and the reason they rose against the senate was because the senate were no longer able to help manage the social problems or the military and administrative problems of the empire.

    Read More

  • The downfall of the Republic

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... them to acknowledge what little rights they possessed as a whole (Booms, et al., 2013). The reforms made by Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus had a long lasting effect on the Roman Republic as the reforms targeted areas that were formerly forgotten and this resulted in a build-up of tension between the plebeians and the government that would eventually contribute to its downfall.

    Read More

  • The Gracchi Brothers

    1806 Words  | 4 Pages

    Upon expansion of the Roman Empire, lie trials and tribulations for the government to rule the foreign lands and keep the population in check. The Gracchi brothers grew up during a time when the Roman Empire was still under civil unrest. The Roman people were divided, lands were unevenly distributed, the government was disorderly, patriotism ceased to exist, and slave labor made it harder for citizens to uproot themselves from poverty. Tiberius, the elder brother, was the first to bring up the agrarian laws, and was followed after his death by his younger brother, Gaius Gracchus. The brothers knew of the significance of winning the side of the commoners to assert their power over the empire. By ways of the agrarian laws, and other reforms, the two brothers were able to win control of the masses, leaving the senate to fear what could happen if these two rise in power. According to Gaius Gracchus, “in a certain pamphlet, has written that as Tiberius was passing through Tuscany on his way to Numantia, and observed the dearth of inhabitants in the country, and that those who tilled its soil or tended its flocks there were imported barbarian slaves, he then first conceived the public policy which was the cause of countless ills to the two brothers.” (Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus 8.7)

    Read More

  • Julius Caesar and 1984

    1186 Words  | 3 Pages

    The plebeians are everyday citizens of Rome, and although they do not play a vital role in Julius Caesar, they are quite substantial benefactors of the relationship of governments. However, this is not the case in this story, when the plebeians are simply influenced by the political tricks. During the dispute between Brutus and Antony, the plebeians are fickle; the mass conforms and do not bother to debate or voice their opinions. In "Not One of Us" Kazin Al...

    Read More

  • The Tragedy of Julis Caesar by William Shakespeare

    664 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, although the plebeians seem to hold the right to affect the politics; they are not aware of the affects that might occur to them. For instance, by influencing Brutus and Antony, they indirectly put themselves in a position to be manipulated. Therefore, the biggest influence the citizens could have, would be none at all.

    Read More

  • Essay On Roman Republic

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 509 B.C. the Romans declared themselves a republic, free from rule of the Etruscan kings. (“The Rise of…”) From that point on, the Roman’s form of government would never include the title of “king”, in fear that a single person would gain absolute power. The republic included a dictator (in emergencies), the senate, two consuls, and several other positions. (Bishop) Although the goal of creating a republic was to have a government that represented the wishes of its people, the Roman senate consisted of men of wealth or power, leaving most of the plebeians, or common people, out of the picture. Many of the emperors’ policies strengthened the power of the government, and therefore weakened the power of the plebeians. By the end of Sulla’s rule in 78 B.C., grain prices had risen substantially and there was large gap between the rich and poor. (“The Rise of…”) When Julius Caesar took power, he initiated several reforms that were much needed at the time. Caesar spent large volumes of money on entertaining the citizens, while expanding citizenship to people of conquered lands and lessening the power of the senate. His policies threatened the method of income of senators and around 60 senators, in the name of saving the republic, murdered Julius Caesar at a senate hearing in 44 B.C. Civil war then erupted in Rome and lasted over a decade. At the end of the blood brawl, it was Octavian who emerged victorious; he would be the first Roman Emperor and would be known as Augustus. (Morey) Although the “Liberators” (Julius Caesar’s assassins), might not have realized it, the day that Julius Caesar died was the same day that the republic died; t...

    Read More

  • The Fall of The Roman Republic

    878 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ultimately, the Roman Republic’s downfall lay in its lack of major wars or other crises, which led to a void of honor and leadership. War united all of Rome’s people, and provided the challenge to its leaders to develop honor and leadership by their causes and actions. The lack of war allowed the Roman Republic to stagnate and become self-indulgent. By the end of the Punic Wars, which combined these elements, Rome was sure to fail. Without a common thread uniting its society, the Roman Republic unraveled because it had nothing left holding it together.

    Read More

  • The Fall Of The Roman Empire Essay

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    In order for the Romans to invade and conquer other provinces, they had to spend heavily on their legions. The Roman armies and supply lines became over-stretched resulting in thousands of soldiers being recruited and deployed from Rome into other territories as invaders or defenders. They also depended on soldiers to defend the borders of the lands they had conquered from barbarian attacks which resulted in the increased manufacturing of weapons and more money being spent on soldiers. High military spending left the Romans with very limited resources for other essential government projects such as the building of more public houses and the development of roads and aqueducts as well as leading to inflation. The over-expenditure on the military led the citizens of Rome to refuse the policies and laws enforced by the government and riots were commonplace in Rome during its last century.... ...

    Read More

More about Similarities Between Patricians And Plebeians

Open Document