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Difference Between Patricians And Plebeians

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Introduction

The patricians and plebeians were the two tribes that united to rule out the kingship in Rome. When the struggle to remove kingship ended, the patricians gained more power from the victory than its alliance the plebeians. Even though the plebeians could vote in the comitia centuriata, they could not hold office. Patricians were richer as compared to plebeians and despite Rome becoming a republic; it was an aristocratic way of government and not democracy. In this text I am to discuss how this economic and political imbalance between the two orders led to the inferior Romans known as plebeian to revolt.

The struggle against kingship left the plebeians poorer because they left their homes at most time, they are the ones who …show more content…

However, they were not satisfied because the political powers still belonged to the patricians and the law was administered solely by patrician. So the plebeians now demanded political equality and rights. This resulted in the second secession of the plebeians. The plebeians could be charged unjustly because the law was only known by the patricians. Harsa the tribune proposed that the law be in writing and be published but it wasn’t approved until ten years later when the group of ten men called decemvirs gathered to draw up the law. They formed the XII Table which was a set of laws. However, the law was still not fair to the plebeians because the patricians still claimed that they had the power of life and death. This marked the beginning of the second secession. The tragic death of Virginia aroused the people to vengeance, after killing her daughter, with his bloody knife in his hands Virginius ran to the soldiers and asked them to resist the power of the decemvirs (William, Ch. 8). The army followed by citizens took their station again to the hill and decided not to defend the tranny. Before the state could be ruined the decemvirs were forced to resign and the Valerio- Horatian law was passed. This resulted in the plebeians to be given the rights to form laws abiding all Romans in the assembly. From this point the right of intermarriage was upheld and the plebeians had equal political rights with the

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