Social Mobility In The Roman Empire

To Be A Peasant or Be An Aristocrat:

Social Mobility in the Roman Empire and the Empire of the Great Tang

The Empire of the Great Tang and the Roman Empire existed on a similar large scale and had significant impact on the human history(McKay et al. 184). They were quite similar in many aspects. Both empires were governed by monarchs, bureaucracies and armies(McKay et al. 184). In addition, both empires reached the people directly through taxation and conscription policies, and both invested in infrastructure(McKay et al. 184). However, the political structure was more noticeable, because it was quite different between these two empires and it influenced the social mobility and the civilians’ life significantly. The Tang Empire had examination

system, whereas, the Roman Empire had republic system. So under which regime, did the civilians had more chance to gain higher social status? In addition, which empire had more social mobility? Although the Tang Empire did not have republican ideas, research and study illustrated more social mobility in Tang Empire than in the Roman Empire in terms of civilians becoming officials, merchant, religious person and gaining high social class.
Tang Dynasty offered more opportunities for the knowledgeable civilians with humble birth to become officials and gain high social class, which meant more wealth and power for them. In Tang Dynasty, civilians could pass civil written merit-based exams, which contained political and moral problems and classical Chinese readings to become an official in the imperial bureaucracy(McKay et al. 189; Wills 251). This exam implied an entrance ticket for the poor civilian to pursue their political career. The exam would conceal the examiner’s name on the paper(Willls 251). When the examiner read through the paper, they were not able to know whose paper was it or whether the test taker was noble or peasant. Therefore, it prevented cheating and provided the Tang citizen a fair chance to get selected as a governor. “Further, school of management and government were founded to prepare the civilians for political careers” (McKay et al. 189). As a result, Tang civilians from different classes also had fairly equal opportunities to get education. All these combined methods allowed the Tang civilian to change his or her destiny and gain high social status by passing the exam even when he or she was born in the bottom of the social class.
In addition, Tang Empire had freedom for people to move from different social classes without only passing the exam, therefore a peasant could be a merchant, monk, artist etc.

Whereas, the slaves in the Roman Empire were subjected to their master and could not be anything until they would be free by law(Grant 44, 45). Moreover, in the religious aspect, “The city was dotted with religious establishments, of which the most numerous and impressive were Daoist and Buddhist monasteries, and nunneries, but which also included a Muslim mosque and some kind of church for the Nestorian Christians who came all the way from Syria”(Wills 245). This scenario presented the high religion toleration in Tang Empire and citizens were able to practice any religion, whereas only one orthodoxy could exist and other religions would be considered as heresies which implied persecution(M. 55, 56). So the citizens of the Roman Empire did not have much options and social mobility in the religious perspective. Further, The Tang bureaucracy promoted merchandise trade which enabled the peasants to move to an upper class in the society(Wills 246, 247). The prosperity of the in free merchandise trade domestically and internationally also demonstrated potentials for the peasants to gain wealth by becoming a merchant in 700 C.E.(Wills 245, 246). The peasants were able to make more money through the trade and move to the upper

class.
On the contrary, The situation in the Roman Empire was difficult for the plebeians to climb up in the society.

The Roman Empire had republic system, which meant the governors were elected through election(McKay et al. 147). Whereas, election required a large amount of money and connections in the Roman Empire, which eliminated the possibility for the poor plebeians to even start an election campaign. Therefore, the poor plebeians could hardly gained higher position in the bureaucracy. Moreover, the emperor, aristocracy and patrician dominated education, economy, jurisdiction military power and even the senate, while the plebeians had little access to them(McKay et al.). The plebeians were more difficult to compete against the patrician in gaining social status or wealth with all these disadvantages. As a result, the plebeians were difficult to move upward in the society. Besides, the corruption in the late Roman Empire was severe(Chang). The patricians with mutual benefit connected together and were able to manipulate the election(Chang). In the end, the patricians were always the people that become the officials. The consequence was that the upper social status patricians kept well their high positions and wealth, but the lower class plebeians also stayed where they were in the

society.
People might argue that there were no republican ideals in Tang Dynasty regime and the emperors were hereditary, which eliminated the civilian’s opportunity to become emperor if one was not born in the royal family. At the same time, the Roman Empire still had possibility for the patricians or even wealthy plebeians to win the election and enthroned. Thus, the social mobility was more limited in the Tang Empire. Nevertheless, the Roman Emperor could also be hereditary excluded the influence of the Senate and people, since the emperor had the absolute power(McKay et al.). The republican system of the Roman Empire would not strongly oscillate the will of emperor to nominate the next emperor just like the Tang Empire. Therefore, the civilians of both empires were in the similar scenario that the civilians could hardly be the emperor. But the commoners of Tang Empire still had more hope to become officials, merchants, monks or priests serving in different classes of society.
In conclusion, the Empire of Great Tang provided more opportunities and methods for the civilians to transform their destinies or climb up in the society than the Roman Empire. Whether passing the civil merit-based exam or practicing freely in religion or starting trading, Tang citizen could have more possibility to achieve his or her goal or gaining higher social status. However, the Roman Empire demonstrated more obstacles for the civilian and slave to move upward in society in terms of official election, gaining wealth and religion.