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Plebians vs Patrcians - Social Formations II

SOFO II
BA (Hons.) History (University of Delhi)

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What role did the Patrician- Plebeian conflict play in the making of the Republic in Rome? (509
BCE-27BCE)

What role did the Patrician-Plebeian orders play in modifying the structure of the Roman
Republic?

Why did the conflict of the “social orders” fail to resolve the social tensions in the Roman republic?

The civilisation of Rome succeeded the Greek civilisation as the major ancient European civilisation.
The nucleus of the Roman social formation was initially Italy, followed by the entire Mediterranean,
around 800 BC, the area came to be inhabited by the Etruscans and was undergoing a transition
which led to urbanisation and the growth of agricultural economy. They did not create a politically
unified state but lived in self-governed cities with their own independent territories. According to
tradition, the foundation of the city of Rome was laid in the year 753 BC. The early history of Rome
however was draped in obscurity. It also seemed that the elements of Etruscan social and political
order influenced the monarchical form of government that eventually came up in Rome.

Historians like Afoldi argue that during the second Punic war, most Roman writers produced material
on early Rome but they could not be taken as genuine accounts for they overly glorified the past. The
first Roman chronicle was written by Fabius Pictor, a Patrician who participated in the Second Punic
War. Afoldi is of the opinion that he fabricated a chronology to glorify Rome. Knowledge of Rome
also came from the histories of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, written under Augustus, drawing
from the annals composed by Dracchi and Sulla.

From the dawn of the Republic, there was an intense struggle between the landed aristocracy and
the common people of Rome, Rome being divided along class line where the aristocracy enjoyed a
monopoly over the political power, resulting in a prolonged conflict. Roman aristocracy was not in a
position to completely suppress the struggle of the peasantry and this struggle became a recurring
feature of the republic throughout its history. To begin with, the aristocracy lacked the resources to
mobilize a large standing army consisting of professional warrior and could not therefore effectively
deal with the unrest among the peasantry. Moreover, Roman military organization was heavily
dependent on the peasants who constituted the main fighting force. The Roman army comprised
unpaid soldiers who were primarily recruited from the peasantry.

In the year510 BC, monarchy in Rome came to an abrupt end. Tarquin the Proud, an Etruscan king,
exercised power tyrannically and was overthrown by the nobility leading to an oligarchic form of
government in the city where the rulers were the wealthy Latin aristocracy of Rome. Henceforth,
Romans substituted the king for two magistrates who came to be known as consuls. With the
abolition of monarchy in Rome, the Senate became the foremost institution of governance. In the
heydays of the monarchs, the Senate functioned as an advisory council for the king. After 510 BC, the
aristocracy ruled over Rome through the Senate. In the early Republic, the Senate was dominated by
the Patrician order, constituting small close-knit elite. Patrician social order was based on kinship
groups called gente, tracing its origin to a common ancestor. The Roman society was divided into two
orders, the first being the Patrician order, the second being the larger group consisting of the
common folk, the Plebeians. The struggle between these two orders has been famously called the
“conflict of the orders”.

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Membership into these orders was based on birth and not on merit. Patrician gentes were patrilineal
and rigidly patriarchal. Whereas the Roman orders were not, strictly speaking, classes, it is
nevertheless true that the patricians were the economically, politically and socially dominant group.
Orders might not have been classes but they approximated to classes. During the last phase of the
republic a small section of the plebeians was given a share in political power, but the vast majority of
them remained a deprived class with very little control over land or other means of production.
Patricians exercised a high degree of control over the Roman religion.

The Senate, dominated by the Patricians, ruled over Rome, turning it into an exclusively oligarchic
institution. Membership of the Senate was by cooption, the original members chose the new
members of the Senate. Only Patrician males could become members of the Senate. The Senate gave
duties to magistrates and advised the on legislation, financial and judiciary matters without electing
them. The Senate however had the real powers. The envoy of Phrryus of Epirus calls it “an assembly
of kings”. Cicero calls the magistrates “servants of the Senate”.

The highest officials of the Roman Republic were the Consuls. There were two consuls and they held
office simultaneously. The consulship was an elective post and elections took place on an annual
basis. The two consuls remained in office for one year after which fresh elections were held. Roman
years were usually named after the consuls for the respective years. The authority of the Roman
state was vested in the consuls. They presided over the senate and performed executive, judicial and
military functions. in the later years of the republic the minimum age for consulship was forty-two
years. Consuls could seek re-election without any restrictions.

There were several other magistrates who looked into the various aspects of administration. This
included the censors, who were elected once in five years. They held office for 18 months during
which they were required to conduct a census of the Roman citizens. In addition to the consuls ,
there were junior magistrates like the aediles and the quaestors. While the former was incharge of
public works, the latter looked after the state treasury and maintained public accounts. There were
also salaried minor officials called the apparitores, who conducted day to day tasks. Lictors were
officials who escorted the consuls.

The political structure of the city of Rome included a tribal assembly and the members of this
assembly were the male adults of all the communities that had initially inhabited Rome. When the
Patricians assumed power, this assembly, called the Comitia Curiata, became defunct. It continued to
exist formally but had no real power. The comitia curiata got its name from the kinship based social
unit called curia. The curiae were extended clans which included the plebeians. Each curia elected
its own head called curio, a position for life. The chief curio, curio maximus was a Patrician till 210
BC.

To the dismal of the Plebeians, they realised that the comitia curiata no longer took care of their
interest. Due to the growing pressure from the peasant soldiers, who were mainly plebeians, a new
assembly called the comitia centuriata was formed. It was an assembly of all Roman citizens where
the citizens were grouped into centuries. For most of the republican period the comitia centuriata
was the main assembly of citizens. This was the assembly which elected the consuls and censors.
Legislation had to be passed by the comitia centuriata. War and peace were the prerogative of this
assembly. All major decisions of the state had to have the approval of the comitia centuriata. The
comitia curiata now only looked after a few matters of a social and religious nature. Some issues

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pertaining to marriage, adoption, and inheritance were taken up by this assembly and wills were
recorded there. Several officials who performed priestly functions were elected by the comitia
curiata. But politically it was an insignificant body.

The comitia centuriata contained 193 centuries. Each century had one vote. As in the comitia curiata,
the collective vote of each century was taken. The arrangement of the centuries was such that the
patricians controlled the majority of votes in the comitia centuriata. The centuries were grouped into
five classes. These classes were constituted on the basis of property qualifications. The 193 centuries
of the comitia centuriata were not distributed equally among the five classes. The largest number of
centuries was placed in the first three classes, which were classes of the aristocracy and the wealthy.

Having failed to get a share of political power through the comitia centuriata, the plebeians
organized themselves into a body of their own. This body came to be called the concilium plebis. The
concilium plebis was an assembly of plebeians. It discussed various issues which concerned the
plebeians. Soon the concilium plebis got institutionalized and evolved its own structure. It had
regular procedures and elected its own officials. In 494 BC the plebeians forced the Roman state to
formally appoint two officers elected by it, tribunes, as the official spokespersons of the Plebeians.

The refusal to render military service was the most powerful weapon in the hands of the plebeians.
The first successful agitation of the plebeians was directed for securing greater protection for the
common man against unjust force and chicanery. In the year 494 BC, a great body of plebeians sat
down en masse outside Rome and refused to render military service. This is referred to as secessio.
They wanted the Roman state to acknowledge the existence of the concilium plebis and recognize
the tribunes. It was only after the Roman state had agreed to these demands that the secessio was
called off. The responsibilities of the tribunes gradually multiplied leading to an increase in the
number of tribunes. By 448 BC the number of tribunes had risen to ten. The tribunes were elected
annually by the concilium plebis. “Plebiscita” were resolutions passed in the tribal assembly and
could be turned into a law after a vote in the Centuriate.

Following the victory of 494 BC there were four other important landmarks in the struggle of the
plebeians during the early republic. One of the major demands of the plebeians was that there
should be a written code of law so that there was no arbitrary exercise of judicial authority. The
patricians had consistently abused their judicial powers by enforcing laws according to their own will.
The plebeians threatened the senate with another secessio if it did not initiate steps to create a
proper legal framework for the Roman state. The senate set up a ten-member commission , the
members of this commission therefore being called decemvirs presided over by Appius Claudius. The
decemvirs prepared a set of laws for the Romans. This set of laws is known as the Code of the Twelve
Tables. It was introduced in 450 BC, around the same time as the establishment of the comitia
centuriata. The Twelve Tables were the foundation on which the vast edifice of Roman law was built.

In 367 BC the patricians conceded one of the consulships to the plebeians. The actual election of a
plebeian to the post of consul came much later. The tenure of a consul was one year, but the
consulship carried with it an additional advantage which was of a permanent nature. Consuls were
eligible for becoming members of the senate. Hence, even though plebeians could not become
senators in the normal course right till the end of the republic, election to the consulship provided
them with an opportunity to enter the senate. Membership of the senate, it may be recalled, was for
life. A few plebeians climbed to the rank of senator via the consulship. By utilizing this route a

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handful of senatorial plebeian families rose to prominence in the late republic (e.g. Gracchus
brothers, Mark Antony).

Then in 326 BC another crucial reform took place. Roman law had a very harsh provision which
applied to the strict enforcement of formal contracts or nexum. If a Roman entered into a formal
agreement or nexum while contracting a loan in which the debtor person was pledged as security,
failure to honour the agreement automatically meant debt bondage. Debts incurred due to frequent
participation in wars, as well as to meet diverse economic needs, had made indebtedness a chronic
peasant problem. When the peasants and other poor people were unable to repay their loans they
were enslaved. Nexum thus became a device for the big landowners to convert free peasants into
un-free labour. Growing deprivation by the mid-republican period aggravated the problem. The
plebeians had to agitate for the abolition of nexum. Finally, a law in 326 BC prohibited the
enslavement of a Roman citizen for non-repayment of debts, stabilizing the position of Roman
peasantry for some time.

The fourth, and perhaps politically the most important, landmark in the prolonged contest between
patricians and plebeians during the early republic was a legislation of 287 Be which gave the plebeian
tribunes full-fledged magisterial powers. The political crisis within the republic coincided with the
plan to bring the Greek states of southern Italy under Roman control. The situation was so serious
that a dictator—who was an elected magistrate with absolute powers appointed at times of crisis for
a short duration (usually six months)— was chosen to find some solution to the conflict of the
orders. Quintius Hortensius was elected dictator with the specific objective of resolving the crisis.
Quintius Hortensius enacted a law which made the decisions of the concilium plebis binding on the
Roman state. The tribunes were authorized to enforce the decisions of the concilium plebis with
appropriate punishments for violation. The reform of Hortensius, known as Lex Hortensia (Roman
laws were named after the magistrates who initiated them), were of immense historical significance.
The concilium plebis was now at par with other Roman assemblies. Its decisions had full legal
authority. The tribuneship became a powerful magistracy. Lex Hortensia brought to an end one
phase of the class struggle in the Roman republic. After 287 BC the struggle continued but the nature
of the conflict underwent changes.

The developments of 287 BC probably necessitated a reorganization of the Roman assembly. A new
assembly was constituted around this time, though the actual date is not known. This assembly was
the comitia tributa. The comitia tributa was an assembly of all Roman citizens in which the citizens
were grouped according to tribes (tribus).

As new institutions were created the older ones were not formally abandoned. The senate coexisted
with the concilium plebis; the comitia curiata and comitia centuriata coexisted with the comitia
tributa; and the consuls coexisted with the tribunes. The functions of some of the older bodies were
curtailed or modified. The comitia curiata retained its archaic oligarchical structure, the comitia
centuriata continued to elect the consuls, the senate remained theoretically closed to plebeians, and
the consulship was still the most powerful magistracy at the end of the republic. The overall picture
which emerges from this is that by the mid-republic there were multiple centres of power and this
gave rise to much instability. Political instability at home went hand in hand with large-scale
territorial expansion from 280 BC onwards.

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Between 280 and 146 BC Rome was constantly at war. The Punic and Macedonian wars laid the
foundations of Rome Mediterranean empire. Lex Hortensia had temporarily reduced social and
political tensions at home. This allowed the Roman state to mobilize resources for fighting its wars.

After 146 BC the contradictions between the aristocracy and the peasantry sharpened, leading to a
violent and bitter struggle. For over a century the Roman republic was in a perpetual state of unrest
which at times assumed the shape of civil war. At the beginning of the republic most of the plebeians
had been peasants. By the late republic the plebeians had become socially differentiated. At one end
there was a tiny elite among the plebeians which had used the concessions made to the plebeians,
to accumulate wealth and become politically powerful. This phenomenon had produced a handful of
plebeian senatorial families which enjoyed almost the same status as the patrician aristocracy.

At the bottom were the propertyless citizens. In the early republic most of the plebeians had owned
some land, but by the third century BC many of them had lost their holdings. In the comitia
centuriata the propertyless citizens were placed in the century of the proletarii. The Roman small
peasants were termed assidui. The assidui were the backbone of the Roman infantry.

After 146 BC the struggle of the peasants centred around the question of land reforms. The assidui
were demanding redistribution of land. Two brothers (Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus), belonging to a
plebeian oligarchical family which bore the name Gracchus, led the movement for land reforms.
Tiberius Gracchus was elected tribune in 133 BC and initiated a programme for giving land to the
peasants.

The land which he proposed to distribute among the poor was actually public agricultural property
which had been illegally taken over by the aristocracy. This category of land was known as ager
publicus. When Rome was in its phase of expansion, it confiscated some of the agricultural land in
the conquered territories. It was called ager publicus and was the collective property of all Roman
citizens. The ager publicus was managed by the state. When Tiberius Gracchus assumed office in 133
BC he set up a commission to take back all the ager publicus which was under illegal occupation, by
the aristocracy. The resumed land was then to be distributed among small peasants. The peasants
were to be given occupancy rights and had to pay dues to the state for this land.

As an aftermath of this, Tiberius was killed and was succeeded by his brother Gaius. Gaius carried
forward the reforms by implementing the agrarian laws of Tiberius. To improve the lot of the
dispossessed citizens Gaius started sale of cheap grain subsidized by the state. Later on this
developed into a system of free grain distribution to the poorest sections of the Romans. Gaius also
settled a large section of poor citizens in the newly conquered territories of Carthage.

Gaius was murdered in 121 BC and his followers were brutally massacred. In 119 BC the commission
for redistributing the ager publicus was disbanded. By the end of the republic the small peasantry
became an insignificant class. On the other hand the ranks of the proletarii swelled. P.A. Brunt (Social
Conflicts in the Roman Republic) has argued that by the time the Second Punic War began the bulk of
the citizens were already landless.

A partial solution to this problem had been found by raising auxiliary contingents from subjugated
territories. A portion of the cavalry was also maintained at state expense. In 100 BC Marius, who held
the post of consul for several terms and was a leading political and military figure, reformed the

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Roman army by inducting paid troops. Henceforth Roman troops received a salary from the state.
Landless citizens could now serve as soldiers.

Previously the assidui soldiers would return home after a campaign and go back to their fields. Now
the soldiers were permanently engaged in campaigns and were stationed for long periods outside
Italy in distant parts of the empire. With large well-trained armies under them the military leaders of
the oligarchy could violently assert themselves for controlling the policies of the Roman state. There
were several such commanders in the period between 100 BC and 27 BC: Marius himself, Sulla,
Crassus, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Augustus. The army was increasingly deployed to
suppress discontent and to promote the interests of the aristocracy. It was also used in personal
factional conflicts by the oligarchy.

For seventy years from 100 Be onwards Rome witnessed a series of violent upheavals. In 91 BC there
was a widespread revolt in Italy against Roman rule. A regular war broke out between Rome and
several Italian communities which had been subjugated by the Romans. The Marsi and Samnites
were the most formidable opponents of the Romans in this war. This war is called the Social War (91-
89 BC). The main demand of the allies during the Social War was that Roman citizenship rights should
be extended to the socii Halici ( the allies), although there were some Italian communities like the
Samnites who fought the war with the objective of regaining their independence from Rome.

Full Roman citizenship implied two types of rights: political rights (jura publica) and civil rights (jura
privata). The political rights of citizenship gave a citizen the right to participate and vote in the
assembly. These rights entitled him to be elected to various public offices, subject to certain
qualifications. Civil rights pertained to marriage, inheritance, ownership of property, and
enforcement of contractual obligations. Only citizens possessed the right to a Roman marriage, called
conubium. Marriages with conubium allowed the children to have rights of citizenship and to inherit
property. Citizens with full citizenship rights enjoyed both political rights and civil rights. Inferior
citizens, whom we may call half citizens, only had civil rights. They could not vote or get elected to
Roman magistracies.

Initially when citizenship rights were given to the Latins only civil rights were intended. This enabled
intermarriage between Romans and other Latin communities and allowed Latins to hold property in
full ownership. The unique association between the Romans and other Latins gave rise to a special
prerogative called jus Latii (Latin right) which indicated the right of the Latins to enjoy Roman jura
privata. Subsequently some sections of Latin communities outside Rome were given political rights as
well making them full citizens.

When Rome had annexed a territory it sometimes sent out a group of Roman citizens to settle in that
territory. This body of citizens established a Roman colony (colonia) in the conquered area. The
colonies acted as garrisons to ensure Roman control. The Roman citizens in these colonies retained
their citizenship rights while local inhabitants were made inferior citizens.

As long as the Italian allies were left free to manage the in internal affairs and the provisions of the
treaties, particularly provisions regarding military assistance, were respected by Rome the socii did
not mind being denied citizenship rights. The mounting military burden combined with loss of
autonomy made them demand citizenship rights. When the senate rejected the demand the allies
joined hands to fight against Rome.

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In 90 BC Rome granted full citizenship to all allied territories in Italy south of the river Po. It has been
commented that in terms of political rights the extension of citizenship to all free inhabitants of Italy
(barring the Cisalpine region) had very little meaning except for the elites who got limited access to
political power. By 90 BC the constitutional machinery of the Roman republic was on the verge of
collapse. The multiplicity of centres of power added to the confusion. The army had emerged as a
new political factor. It had altered the balance of forces in Rome and began to play a decisive role in
determining the outcome conflicts. The conflicts were increasingly marked by bloodshed on a
massive scale.

The Social war was coupled with conflicts with West Asia leading to a bitter battle between the
current consul Marius and Sulla, leader of the Patrician faction, when the latter was asked to hand
over control to Marius. A Civil War (88-82 BC) broke out between Sulla and Marius. Sulla soon got
the upper hand in this Civil War. His task was made easier by the death of Marius in 86 BC. Sulla then
resumed the war against Greek states. His success added to his prestige and increased his hold over
the army. He used this power to become absolute ruler of Rome. Sulla returned to Rome in 82 BC
and with the help of the army put an end to the Civil War. He brutally suppressed his opponents. In
81 BC he was appointed dictator. Sulla defied the rule according to which six months was the
maximum period for which a Roman dictator could assume office. He extended his dictatorship
indefinitely. Sulla’s personal authority was supreme with all political and military power concentrated
in his hands.

Some of the supporters of Marius had launched a movement against Sulla’s dictatorship. The
province of Spain became the focal point of the rebellion. The movement developed into a guerrilla
war under the leadership of Quintius Sertorius and between 80 and 72 BC Spain almost seceded
from Rome. Sertorius is regarded as the most brilliant guerrilla leader of the ancient Greco-Roman
world. Within Italy itself a major slave uprising broke out in 73 BC and went on till 71 BC. This
uprising, which was led by a Thracian slave named Spartacus, was the biggest slave revolt in Roman
history. The Spartacus revolt, as it is called, originated in Sicily and soon spread to southern Italy. The
revolt was crushed after heavy fighting in 71 BC.

In the post-Sulla period the plebeian senatorial oligarchy reasserted itself making it all the more
difficult to resolve the internal political conflicts of the republic. Moreover, the military campaigns of
this period brought four warlords to the forefront of Roman politics. These four warlords were
Lucullus, Crassus, Pompey and Julius Caesar. In 70 BC Crassus and Pompey consolidated their political
position by getting elected as consuls for that year. Julius Caesar was sent to Spain to restore order in
the province after the defeat of Sertorius. Lucullus was still in Anatolia.

In 67 BC Lucullus was recalled from the east and thereafter retired from public life. This left three
warlords— Crassus, Pompey, and Julius Caesar. Pompey was sent out to the east to lead the Roman
army against Mithridates. Pompey was given extensive powers under a law called Lex Manilla (66
BC). Under Lex Manilia Pompey enjoyed powers which were more wide-ranging than those of any
other Roman military commander before him. Pompey inflicted a decisive defeat on Mithridates in
63 BC.

The tension between Pompey and the senate grew as the latter tried to curtail his power. Pompey
joined hands with the two other warlords to counter the senate. Julius Caesar had returned from
Spain in 60 BC. Crassus, Pompey and Julius Caesar formed a coalition in 60 BC. This coalition is

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referred to as the First Triumvirate. Pompey, Crassus and Julius Caesar tried out a new experiment by
concentrating all power in their hands. The entire authority of the Roman state was vested in the
Triumvirate. The other institutions of the republic were not abolished but they were made
ineffective.

In 60 BC the three warlords had entered into

a formal agreement to share power by forming

a Triumvirate. In 56 BC they renewed this

agreement. After 56 BC, however, the Triumvirate began facing problems. Crassus had been given
command of the eastern army where he endeavoured to extend the Roman frontiers beyond Syria.
This involved him in a full-fledged war with the Parthians who were now ruling over Iran and
Mesopotamia. The Romans suffered one of their biggest military reverses when their army was
totally routed by the Parthians in 53 BC at the battle of Carrhae (Harran, in northern Mesopotamia).
Crassus was killed in this battle. The death of Crassus upset the balance of power in the Triumvirate.
For a few years after this event there was a tussle between Julius Caesar and Pompey.

Julius Caesar had received the command of Roman armies in Gaul (modern France and Belgium) in
58 BC. For nearly a decade Caesar was in Gaul. He conquered this large and fertile region for the
Roman empire. The Gauls strongly resisted Roman domination. They organized themselves militarily
to prevent Roman conquest of their territories. The most well-known leader of the Gauls was
Vercingetorix of the Arverni tribe. It was only in 50 BC that Julius Caesar succeeded in subjugating the
Gauls.

In order to prevent Pompey from becoming absolute ruler of Rome, Caesar decided to march into
Italy with his army. In 49 BC he crossed the Rubicon river on his way to Rome. When the territories of
Cisalpine Gaul were organized, the river Rubicon was made its southern boundary. Officially Julius
Caesar’s command was confined to the area north of the Rubicon. He was not authorized to cross
the river into Italy proper with his army. He ignored this provision and led his army to Rome. There
was a brief civil war between the two warlords. Pompey was defeated in 48 BC and fled to Egypt
where he was murdered. Julius Caesar was now the supreme warlord of Rome. In 47 BC he was
made dictator for ten years. This might have been a step in the direction of acquiring monarchical
authority.

He was murdered in 44 BC. The leaders of the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar were Brutus and
Cassius. They belonged to the faction of the oligarchy which wanted to prevent Julius Caesar from
converting the republic into a monarchy. The supporters of Julius Caesar were still sufficiently strong
to assert themselves after his assassination.

Mark Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian Caesar formed a new triumvirate, known as the Second
Triumvirate, in 43 BC. Within a year the Triumvirate had suppressed all opposition. Brutus and

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Cassius were defeated in battle (42 BC). Lepidus, who was the weakest among the three leaders, was
then forced to retire from the Triumvirate. Subsequently differences arose between Mark Antony and
Octavian over sharing political power. The struggle for power between the two coincided with
further Roman campaigns in the east. Mark Antony sought the support of Cleopatra, who was at that
time the Ptolemid ruler of Egypt. The combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra were defeated
by Octavian at Actium on the western coast of mainland Greece in 31 BC. Mark Antony and Cleopatra
were dead by 30 BC and Octavian became the supreme ruler of the whole Roman empire. In 27 BC
Octavian assumed the title Augustus (exalted) and declared himself princeps, i. e. the first and
foremost citizen. 27 BC formally marks the end of the republic and the beginning of the Roman
principate.

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