Social Classes In The Roman Empire

Social Class Issues in the Roman Empire Before the second century BCE, Roman society consisted of a Patricians class, an aristocratic class which hereditary relationship determined entrance to class. The second class stood as the Plebeians, also known as the common people. A member of one class could not move up or down in between the classes because marriage of different classes was illegal. The Plebeians began to fight this injustice in 494 BCE and this event was called the Conflict of Orders. The Conflict of Orders lasted over 200 years and took three sessions of Assembly. After the Third Secession, in 287 BCE Plebeians were allowed to move up to the Patricians class. Roman Society then broke off into to two major classes, the upper class, …show more content…
Commoners were freeborn citizens of the Rome, this class then increased with the addition of the Latin class. The Latin class consisted of freeborn people on the Italian peninsula and were granted full roman citizenship in 89 BCE. The final class in this area dwelled the Foreigners, these people lived in the Roman Empire outside of the Italian peninsula and received full Roman citizenship in 212 CE. When all of these classes obtained Roman citizenship, they merged and became all common people of Rome. The Commoners of Rome had to work every day of their lives to make sure they put bread on the table. In the book, Popular Culture in Ancient Rome, Jerry Toner exclaims on page 19 “You are what you earned.” Earlier in the paragraph, Toner suggests that common people obsessed with striving to get the best job and fight against a prejudice about their low origins. The average man in Roman society did not make enough money to support his whole family, the woman usually took up a crafting trade such as weaving and working with clothe to create extra income for the family. The common people used simple clothes to make togas for men and the women wore …show more content…
In Roman society, the slaves received some of the worst cruelty and punishment in all written records. These slaves belonged to a society who invented crucifixion, developed a special technique to whip individuals almost to death, and then stopped so they can beat them later. In addition, the Romans invented the gladiator fights, where most of the gladiators were slaves made to train by their Senatorial master. Slaveholders participated in violent acts towards slaves when the master perceived that the slave was “bad.” One of the biggest complaints from Slave masters was laziness and tardiness. Runaway slaves received the worst punishments of all because running away angered the Slaveholder; the Slaveholders were angry because the slave is stealing the slave owner’s property – himself (Joshel 118). Degraded to the rank of animal slaves worked for their masters and if the job did not meet the standard, the owner possessed the power to discipline anyway they