The economic and political differences between the Patricians and the Plebeians
Introduction
Firstly, it’s important that I explain what the two levels of citizenship were in Ancient Rome for the purpose of this assignment. Rome’s first class citizens were called the Patricians, the name originates from the Latin word “patres”, which is plural for “father”. A class filled with aristocrats and the extremely wealthy that were also the minority. The second class of citizens included everyone else except for slaves, they were called the Plebeians, which in Latin means “the many”, very true because they made up the majority of the population (Wassan, 2014. para. 4). Citizenship was granted by birth right, you had to be born into it and marry …show more content…
The Patricians lived in the city sheltered by the city walls, I imagine it was similar to the gated communities in modern times, however, the poor Plebeians were forced into the outskirts and farmlands with no walls for protection. Army service drew men away from their land and on occasion they’d return home to mere ruins after their homes had been attacked (Morey, 1901. para 2). What do you do when you have no funds to rebuild? you take out a loan, which is what they had to …show more content…
You certainly didn’t want to fall behind with the repayments because you could be arrested, enslaved to your debtor, and imprisoned. I believe many Plebeians fell victim to this (Morey, 1901. para 3). As the vexation continued to brew, the Patricians also had more public land access than the Plebeians. When Rome acquired land throughout times of war, it became property of the state and its entire citizens, at least that’s how it should be. Unfortunately, this became a cunning revenue builder for the government, who instead of allocating some of it to those in need, leased out the land to wealthy Patricians (Morey, 1901. para 5). The Patricians had created the perfect situation that would lead the Plebeians to seek justice for their equality, and the mounting debt gave the final push to start the First
Introduction
Firstly, it’s important that I explain what the two levels of citizenship were in Ancient Rome for the purpose of this assignment. Rome’s first class citizens were called the Patricians, the name originates from the Latin word “patres”, which is plural for “father”. A class filled with aristocrats and the extremely wealthy that were also the minority. The second class of citizens included everyone else except for slaves, they were called the Plebeians, which in Latin means “the many”, very true because they made up the majority of the population (Wassan, 2014. para. 4). Citizenship was granted by birth right, you had to be born into it and marry …show more content…
The Patricians lived in the city sheltered by the city walls, I imagine it was similar to the gated communities in modern times, however, the poor Plebeians were forced into the outskirts and farmlands with no walls for protection. Army service drew men away from their land and on occasion they’d return home to mere ruins after their homes had been attacked (Morey, 1901. para 2). What do you do when you have no funds to rebuild? you take out a loan, which is what they had to …show more content…
You certainly didn’t want to fall behind with the repayments because you could be arrested, enslaved to your debtor, and imprisoned. I believe many Plebeians fell victim to this (Morey, 1901. para 3). As the vexation continued to brew, the Patricians also had more public land access than the Plebeians. When Rome acquired land throughout times of war, it became property of the state and its entire citizens, at least that’s how it should be. Unfortunately, this became a cunning revenue builder for the government, who instead of allocating some of it to those in need, leased out the land to wealthy Patricians (Morey, 1901. para 5). The Patricians had created the perfect situation that would lead the Plebeians to seek justice for their equality, and the mounting debt gave the final push to start the First