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Economic differentiation saw a small number of families accumulate most of the wealth in Rome, thus giving way to the creation of the patrician and plebeian classes. [2] After this initial distinction, however, the divide between patrician and plebeian families was strictly hereditary, based on social status. [2]
The patricians in ancient Rome were of the same status as aristocrats in Greek society. [9] Being of the noble class meant that patricians were able to participate in government and politics, while the plebeians could not. This privilege was important in ancient Roman history and eventually caused a large divide between the two classes.
The Conflict of the Orders (Latin: ordo meaning "social rank") refers to a struggle by plebeians for full political rights from the patricians. [10] According to Roman tradition, shortly after the establishment of the Republic, plebeians objected to their exclusion from power and exploitation by the patricians.
It was a modification to the Valerian law in 449 BC which first allowed acts of the Plebeian Council to have the full force of law over both plebeians and patricians, but eventually the final law in the series was passed (the "Shortening Law"), which removed the last check that the patricians in the Senate had over this power.
Moya K. Mason, Ancient Roman Women: A Look at their Lives. Essay on the lives of Roman women. "Wife-beating in Ancient Rome": an article by Joy Connolly in the TLS, April 9, 2008 "An etext version of: Ferrero, Guglielmo. "Women and Marriage in Ancient Rome." The Women of the Caesars. The Century Co.; New York, 1911.
A series of clashes between the people and the ruling patricians in 495 and 494 BC brought the plebeians to the brink of revolt, and there was talk of assassinating the consuls. Instead, on the advice of Lucius Sicinius Vellutus, the plebeians seceded en masse to the Mons Sacer (the Sacred Mount), a hill outside of Rome. [2]
The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italia during the period of the Roman Republic. Much of individuals' social standing depended on the gens to which they belonged. Certain gentes were classified as patrician, others as plebeian; some had both patrician and plebeian branches
The plebeian council (Latin: concilium plebis) was one of the popular assemblies of ancient Rome. In the standard conception of the classical republican constitution , it was essentially identical to the tribal assembly except that patricians were excluded and it was presided over mainly be plebeian tribunes .