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Plebeians In Ancient Rome

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To clearly address why the plebeians were so important to Rome, one much first know the two classes of people that existed in ancient Rome. The Roman republic comprised of two classes of people-Patricians and Plebeian. They did not receive the same treatment. Even though the two classes had some rights, they did not share the same rights.

In ancient Rome, the Patricians were the worthy landowners “that had a house in the city and a vila in the country run by slaves (Rymer, 2014).” They were considered to be nobles and upper ruling class. The plebeian class on the other hand was free Romans and was the commoners. Even though many Plebeians were rich, they were the ordinary citizens that were not considered elite. These were the workers, farmers, builders, merchants, artisans, and etc. They typically lived in three or –four story apartment houses called insulae. The insulae were often crowded where two families would have to share a single room. There were no bathrooms in the apartments, so a pot was …show more content…

They decided that they would no longer serve in the army, but leave the patricians to fight their own battles (Chapter VII, The Struggle of Economic Rights). After deserting their general and matched in fully array to what they called “sacred mount”, they proposed to form an independent city. At this point, the patrician class was able to see how the Plebeians were important to Rome. Morey (1901) mentioned that “the Patricians saw that the loss of the Plebeian army would be the destruction of Rome (Chapter VII, The Struggle of Economic Rights).” With such realization, what did the Patricians do? They were forced to make a solemn compact to the effect that the debts of all persons who were insolvent should be canceled; and that those who had imprisoned on account of debt should be released. In later times, lot of changes was made in the law in order to maintain the Plebeians in

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