Patricians and Plebeians: Their Origin
In time, Roman society developed different and concurrent class systems. Citizenship status, gender, wealth, and seniority within the family were crucial to defining someone’s rights, privileges, and obligations. Ancestry, though, formed the basis of a quintessentially Roman grouping: the patricians and plebeians.
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Patricians and Plebeians: Their Origin
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From the birth of Rome to the days of Julius Caesar, ancestry impacted Romans’ place in society. Moreover, the conflicting dynamic between patricians and plebeians shaped the Roman Republic’s early centuries. So, exploring their origin is paramount.
Romulus and the Establishment of the Senate
As you may recall, one of Romulus’s first acts was establishing the Senate. He appointed 100 of the wisest family clan (gens) leaders to act as his advisors. These were called the fathers (patres).
Anyone who descended from these primordial senators belonged henceforth to the patrician class. Those who descended from the rest of Romulus’ ragtag band were the plebeians.
According to another version, the patricians were the descendants of all the clans that joined Romulus in the city’s founding. Since a clan leader was called a pater familias (father of the family), anyone who could point to a pater was a patrician.
Basically, if your daddy was there when Romulus murdered Remus, you and your children were patricians. If your family moved to Rome afterward, sorry, you were a pleb.
Irrespective of wealth or merit, ancestry was the only factor in differentiating a patrician from a plebeian. And yet, there were some notable exceptions.
Other Patrician Families
During the time of the kings, when the fledgling Roman Kingdom conquered and absorbed its immediate neighbors, several noble families were inducted into the patrician order.
For example, when Tullus Hostilius relocated the defeated Albans to Rome, he conferred patrician status to its leading families. Many of their descendants rose to the highest political positions, and their names are synonymous with Rome to this day. Just think of Julius Caesar.
The last not-originally-Roman clan to be accepted into the patrician class was the Claudia gens. They were an aristocratic Sabine family who moved to Rome a few years after the overthrow of the Kingdom.
Ironically, the first Roman Emperors were members of the so-called Julio-Claudian dynasty (the Julii + the Claudii = Love). Their ancestors were not among Romulus’ original gang.
Patricians and Plebeians during the Roman Kingdom
In many ways, especially during the Kingdom and the early Republic, the patricians were the equivalent of the feudal aristocracy, while the plebeians were the less fortunate commoners. There were some notable differences, though.
As opposed to slaves and free but non-Roman residents (e.g., foreigners), plebeians were citizens and enjoyed the resultant rights and obligations, such as they were. For instance, they were enrolled into the tribes and the curiae (i.e., voting blocs) and served in the army.
Yet, most political, judicial, and legislative roles were reserved by law for the patrician class during the early Kingdom. And with power comes wealth.
By the Early and Middle Republican period, some patrician families had fallen into poverty, while plebeian ones became wealthy. However, this was not the case in the earlier Kingdom. Most plebeians were farmers and laborers, working the lands and in the workshops owned by wealthy patricians. Still, a lucky few worked their own small plots or ran their own shops.
To use a metaphor, imagine a handful of small business owners struggling to survive, surrounded by a large mass of underpaid corporate employees pulling long shifts to enrich an overprivileged elite. Any similarity to modern-day societies is purely coincidental.
Were the plebeians happy?
Granted, it wasn’t a fair arrangement, yet it was more balanced than many contemporary societies. Remember, in many parts of the world, this was a time of chieftains and shamans lording over a bunch of mud huts.
The ancestry-based class system of the Roman Kingdom helped maintain a level of societal cohesion in two ways:
- Even if they were second-class citizens, the plebeians were shareholders in this start-up of a state. They had a voice and representation through the tribal and curiate assemblies. Moreover, as soldiers, all citizens shared a common enemy, whoever they were in that particular season. The fear of the OTHER has been an effective tool for societal control since the dawn of humanity.
- It is better to be a second-class citizen than a non-citizen or a slave. No matter how miserable life was, as long as others had it worse, plebeians could feel good about themselves. For some reason, humans always find comfort in the misfortune of others.
For a while, the patricians managed to keep the plebeians docile and productive. However, as time went by, discontent rose to the point of insurrection.
Trust me, we’ll cover the so-called Conflict of the Orders in many future posts since it was one of the fundamental struggles of the Republican period.
For now, let’s continue the story of the Roman Kingdom. Where were we? Ah, yes, Rome’s fourth king.
