When
Romulus founded Rome in the mid-700’s BC, he outlined not only the physical
aspects of the city, but he also established the basics of government and
society at the same time. The society he created was divided into two classes.
The upper class, known as the patricians, and the lower class of plebians,
known more commonly as the plebs.[1]
Each of these distinct classes had their own individual duties within society.
Patricians, by right of their more noble birth, served as priests, judges, and
magistrates helping oversee local government. The plebs, having no mind for
such noble pursuits, were farmers, herders, and tradesmen. Plebs were bound to
the patricians under the system of patronage, where each pleb chose which
patrician he would serve. The patricians were to protect and care for the plebs
as they would their own sons while the plebs were bound to help support their
patron.[2]
This
system functioned quite well for close to 400 years. By the late 400’s tension
between the classes were developing. The Sack of Rome by the Gauls in 390 BC
served as a trigger; bring the plebs into open defiance of the system. The
social gaps had widened and the poor were feeling the pressure to recover the
losses suffered as a result of the Gallic invasion. The main issues were the
distribution and use of land, the debt left on the plebs as a result of the
wars, and a lack of political rights.
The
issue of lands was not one of ownership so much as one of usage. The wealthy
held large estates while the plebs owned small holdings. The lands that were at
issue were the agers publicus (public lands). There were state owned lands open
to all to use for free. The wealthy held a near monopoly on the use of these
public lands. In many cases this inability to use the public lands resulted in
the plebs being unable to raise enough to have food to eat and be able to pay
their obligations to their patrons. To alleviate this problem the plebs wanted
newly conquered lands to be distributed into private ownership so there would
be no trouble over usage. They also wanted to limit the amount of public lands
any one family could use, freeing up more land for the poor. [3]
The
issues of debt were directly connected to land use. If the plebs weren’t able
to raise enough to support themselves and pay tributes they were forced into a
system of nexum (debt-bondage) where they were forced to work to pay off their
debt, making it harder for them to earn enough to survive and pay their debts
at the same time causing them to slip even further into debt. The Gallic
Invasion had a direct affect on this not from a monetary standpoint, but from
one of food. With a large army living off the land there is less food,
resulting in a growing hunger and rising debt. Then once the invaders were gone
there was this building of the Roman Wall, paid for with taxes and labor
resulting in more time away from the fields. [4]
Similar
situations can be seen in any agrarian society. There will always be bad
harvests and hard winters that result in a spiral of servitude where the poor
are simply working to make payments and never really get ahead. The American
Dust Bowl is an excellent example of this. In Rome however the plebs took
actions and united to take a stand and force reforms. While the issues of
political rights wouldn’t be settled for another 200 years, the Struggle of the
Orders did result in changes that did much to better the place of the plebs in
society.
[1] Dionysius, The Roman Antiquities Book 2: translations of Xenophon are
taken from the Loeb series, University of Chicago, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/2A*.html
(accessed April 22, 2014), 2.8.1-3.
[3] Cornell,Tim. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars
(c.1000–264 BC) (New
York: Routledge, 1995), 330.
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