| Social Class In Ancient Rome |
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Ancient Roman society was divided into five basic Social Hierarchies . The highest class, the '' Senatores '', included the descendants of the first founders and magistrates of Rome, while the '' Equites '' (known in English as equestrians or knights) was comprised of descendants of founders who had not aspired to political leadership. These two groups made up the Patrician s. The next class, the '' Plebs '', was mainly made up of descendants of early immigrants to Rome from surrounding areas and of freedmen. Freedmen , or liberated slaves, made up the next class, with Slaves (''servi'') at the bottom of the social ladder. Most native-born inhabitants of Rome were either plebeians or slaves. Outside this hierarchy were the ''Latini'', or Italians not holding Roman citizenship, and the ''peregrini'', or immigrants from other areas. PATRICIANS The patrician class was considered the backbone of Roman society. Contemporary politicians and writers ( Coriolanus , for example) in the Kingdom and early Republic thought of plebeians as rabble barely capable of sentient thought. Consequently, all important political and military positions were held by patricians. From the beginning, however, senators and knights were relegated to different spheres of action. Members of the senatorial class were the only Romans eligible to hold most public offices for the bulk of the early Republic, and therefore had to be able to afford the costs of electioneering and entertaining which were necessary to be elected. Members of the equestrian class were so named because originally they could afford a war horse and armor. In the later Republic the qualifications were changed so that senators were required to own property or hold capital valued at 1,000,000 sesterces or greater, while knights had to own property or hold cash totalling at least 400,000 sesterces in value. The patrician class was originally closed to new members. Only descendants of patricians could claim patrician status, and intermarriage with other orders was strictly forbidden. In 297 BC, a major revolt by the plebeians forced the Senate to legalize intermarriage between classes of citizens and to extend the powers of the Tribune s (see below). The status of patricians, although never immaterial, became less important during the Later Republic and into the Principate and Empire . Some patricians (notably a member of the Claudian family and an ancestor of the Emperor Claudius ) petitioned to be assigned plebeian status, partly in order to run for the position of tribune but also partly to lessen the patrician tax burden. Rome's growing economic power as a trading nation left many patrician families behind; those that could not adjust to the new commercial realities of Roman society often found themselves in the embarrassing position of having to marry their daughters to wealthier plebeians or even freedmen. PLEBEIANS The plebeians made up the bulk of the Roman citizenry. They were divided into four sub-classes based on property. The poorest class, the ''proletarii'', were forbidden military service until the reforms of Marius in 108 BC, but otherwise members of the various sub-classes enjoyed the same rights and responsibilities. The official attitude towards the plebeian class varied significantly between generations. Originally, the plebeians had little say in Roman government; the Roman system of voting by regional " Tribes " and property-based "centuries" meant that the vote of a plebeian counted for much less than the vote of a patrician. Historical evidence exists of three major plebeian revolts, mainly triggered by overtaxation, debt, hunger, war weariness, and social instability. The main legal bulwark against the powers of the patrician class was the council of Tribune s. Founded in 494 BC as a concession to the plebeians (who had seceded from the city in protest), the tribunes originally had the power to protect any plebeian from a patrician magistrate. Later revolts forced the Senate to grant the tribunes additional powers, such as the right to veto legislation. The plebeian class was the first to benefit from increasing commercial opportunities available in the late Republic. Unlike patricians, plebeians were not required to own a certain amount of property, so they were free to invest their earnings into commercial ventures. However, the bulk of the plebeians never rose above basic competence. During most of the Late Republic, Principate, and Early Empire, plebeians were allowed a daily issue of grain or bread to encourage their submission to government policies. Some contemporary writers decried these measures as leading to laziness, but both Tacitus and Livy give abundant evidence that slavery severely limited the number of jobs available to the less educated classes of plebeian. The plebeians also made up the bulk of the Army . Each healthy plebeian male (other than members of the ''proletarii'') was expected to be on call for military duty for a number of years. FREEDMEN Freedmen (''libertii'') were freed slaves. Their status varied from generation to generation through the Republic; Livy states that freedmen in the Early Republic mainly joined the lower sub-classes of the plebeians, while Juvenal, writing during the Empire when financial considerations alone dictated economic class, describes freedmen who had been accepted into the equestrian class. Freedmen made up the bulk of the civil service during the early Empire. Many became enormously wealthy as the result of bribes, fraud, or other forms of corruption, or were gifted large estates by the Emperor they served. Other freedmen engaged in commerce, amassing vast fortunes often only rivalled by those of the wealthiest patricians. The majority of freedmen, however, joined the plebeian classes, and often worked as farmers or tradesman. Although freedmen were not allowed to vote during the Republic and the early Empire, children of freedmen were automatically granted the status of citizen. The Augustan poet Horace was himself the child of a freedman from Venusia in southern Italy. Many of Juvenal 's satires contain angry denouncements of the pretensions of wealthy freedmen, some 'with the chalk of the slave market still on their heel'. Although himself the son of a freedman, Juvenal saw these successful men as nouveaux riches who were far too ready to show off their (often ill-gotten) wealth. SLAVES Slaves (''servi'') were for the most part descended from debtors and from prisoners of war, especially women and children captured during sieges and other military campaigns in Italy, Spain, and Carthage. In the later years of the Republic and into the Empire, more slaves came from newly conquered areas of Gaul , Britain , North Africa , the Middle East , and what is now eastern Turkey .The Slaves were traded easily & the younger & beautiful demanded the best of prices. Slaves originally had no rights whatsoever and could be disposed of by their owners at any time. As time went on, however, the Senate and later the emperors enacted legislation meant to protect the lives and health of slaves. However, until slavery was abolished Roman men habitually used their slaves for sexual purposes. Horace, for instance, writes of his love for his young, attractive slaves, and in the epode ''Parentis olim'' chides Macaenas for eating garlic & onions and forcing his slave of the night to retreat to the edge of the bed. All children born to female slaves were legally slaves, although many testators (Tacitus, among others) freed the slaves whom they believed to be their natural children. LATINS Citizens of allied Italian cities were until 90 BC called ''latini'' and acceded the Latin Right (originally extended to the cities of Latium ). The limited rights accorded the ''latini'' under Roman law were the trigger for the Social War . Rome attempted to undercut the rebellion by granting Roman citizenship to all freeborn males born south of the Po . FOREIGNERS Subjects of foreign Provinces were called ''peregrini'', and had more limited rights under Roman law. Many early ''peregrini'' were Greek traders, who were especially populous in Campania and Apulia and whose predecessors had founded the cities of Naples , Herculaneum , Taranto , and Brindisi . Citizenship was extended to all free-born men in the Empire by Caracalla in 212 AD . WOMEN IN ROMAN SOCIETY Freeborn women belonged to the social class of their fathers until marriage, at which time they joined the class of their husband. Freedwomen were able to marry but were barred from marriage with senators or knights and did not join their husband's class. Slaves were not allowed to marry. NOTES |
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