Conflict of the Orders: Patrician vs Plebeian
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After the founding of Rome as a city in the 8th century BC, we created a social system based on an elite few and a majority of commoners. This social arrangement wasn't unique to Rome, and it has appeared in cultures and civilizations around the world. However, Rome was one of the first cultures to experience a conflict between these classes and for the commoners to win major concessions.

Learn more about the conflict of the orders and the battle between Poblians and Patricians on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by NerdWallet. When it comes to general knowledge and history, you know I've got you covered. But who do you turn to when you need smart financial decisions? If your answer is NerdWallet, then you're absolutely right. And if it's not, let me change your mind.

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Before Rome became an empire that ruled all the lands around the Mediterranean, it was just a city on the Italian peninsula. Roman culture and institutions didn't spring up overnight. They were created over time and often for particular reasons. If you remember my previous episode on the subject, Rome had three distinct eras. It was a kingdom, a republic, and then an empire. The events of this episode take place primarily during the Roman kingdom and the very early republic.

It's a period that's often overlooked because Rome had yet to become the power it would eventually be. The story starts with the founder of Rome and its very first king, Romulus. There are some historians who doubt if Romulus was even a real person and believe he was just a legend, so do take this part with a grain of salt. Supposedly, after Romulus established a community on the seven hills of Rome, he established an advisory board made up of 100 men from the most distinguished clans of Rome.

This body was known as the Senate. The word Senate comes from the Latin word Senex, which literally means old man. Each clan was known as a gens, a group of families that shared a name and were descendants of the same ancestor. Each gens was led by a living male who was known as the pater, which means father in Latin.

Members of these gens, both men and women, were known as patricians, which stems from the word pater. The patricians were a class or social order. They were basically the aristocracy of Rome, although they didn't have a hierarchy of titles like duke, earl, or baron. Being a patrician was determined by your family, not a function of wealth per se, although the wealthiest families in Rome were almost all patricians.

The first 100 gens who were appointed to the Senate by Romulus became known as the Gentes Maioris, or the Major Gens. Rome's fifth king, Lucas Tarquinius Priscus, appointed 100 more men to the Senate, and their families became known as Gentes Maiores. Many of these families came from cities around Rome, such as Alba Longa, that Rome had defeated.

Rome's last king was Lucius Tarquinius Suprabus, who was considered a tyrant who executed many senators. In 509 BC, his son was accused of raping a patrician woman by the name of Lucretia, which led to Tarquinius being overthrown by the patricians and the end of the Roman monarchy. One function of the Senate during the kingdom period was to elect a new king. After the monarchy was dissolved, a republic was established, which would be led by the Senate.

Several offices were established, including consul, censor, and the seldom-used position of dictator. These elected positions carried with them an enormous amount of prestige both for the man and the family that they came from. However, there was a catch. All of these positions, as well as admission to the Senate and all major religious positions, were reserved for patricians.

Now I have to mention the other social class in Roman society, the plebeians, or plebs. The plebs were the majority of the Roman population. While a plebeian could, in theory, become rich, in reality, patricians held all the best land and most of the money. Plebs did all the hard labor and made up the majority of the Roman army.

Publians often suffered economic hardships due to heavy debts owed to patrician creditors. Many Publians were small farmers who would fall into debt due to wars or poor harvests. Roman law allowed creditors to enslave debtors, creating a system where many Publians lost their land or freedom, exacerbating the divide between the two groups. As you can probably guess, the complete lack of economic and political power angered the plebs and would eventually come to a head.

This conflict between patricians and Publians is known as the Conflict of the Orders, and it was a contest that lasted for over 200 years. Just 15 years after the creation of the Republic in 494 BC, the Publian point of frustration was reached. When there was a war, only landowners were allowed to fight. Poor plebs had to abandon their farms to go and fight, whereas wealthy patricians could have their lands tended to by servants and slaves.

and this was a major cause of the plebs getting into debt. When asked once again to go to war, this time the plebs refused to go. Instead of fighting, the plebs seceded en masse to the sacred mount, known as Monsacr, a hill outside of Rome. This mass withdrawal was a form of peaceful protest, as Rome relied heavily on Poblian soldiers for defense. In response, the patricians were forced to negotiate.

The result was the creation of the Office of the Tribune of the Plebs, magistrates elected by the Poblians themselves. These tribunes had the power to veto any actions by the Senate or other magistrates, providing the Poblians with a form of protection against patrician abuses. In addition to the veto, tribunes could propose legislation, convene the Senate, and intervene on behalf of the plebs in legal matters.

This was a huge shift in the balance of power between patricians and plebeians. It was a way for plebs to insert themselves into the affairs of the state and prevent any major legislation that would adversely affect them. However, while adding something new, it didn't fundamentally change anything else. Consuls, dictators, senators, and religious officials could still only be patricians.

A little over 40 years later, in 451 BC, the next chapter in the conflict between the two classes took place. At this point in the Roman Republic, laws were unwritten and known only to patricians, who controlled the senate and held judicial positions. This allowed patricians to interpret and enforce laws as they saw fit, often to the detriment of Publians.

The Poblians, frustrated by the lack of transparency and legal equity, demanded written laws to ensure fair treatment and prevent manipulation by the ruling patrician class. In response to Poblian demands, the Roman Senate appointed a commission of ten men known as the Decemviri to draft a new legal code. The Decemviri produced ten tablets, supplemented by two more in 450 B.C.

These laws were inscribed on 12 bronze tables publicly displayed in the Roman Forum so that all citizens could know the law and their rights. The primary purpose of the 12 tables was to codify and formalize existing Roman customs and practices into written law. They were not meant to create new rights or legal protections, but rather to make the law accessible and consistent. Again, this was a step forward, but far from major reform.

During the period the Decemviri convened, the Tribune of the Plebs and all magisterial positions were suspended for one year. A second Decemviri was established which began to abuse their power. The situation escalated when one of the Decemviri, Appius Claudius, attempted to seize a Publian woman named Vergenia, leading to public outrage. In response, the Publians once again withdrew from the city to the sacred mount, refusing to return until their grievances were addressed.

The secession forced the Senate to restore the Tribune of the Plebs, reinstate legal protection for Publians, and end the Decemvirate, marking a victory for Publian rights and further advancing their political equality. One of the ways that patricians protected their status was by banning marriages between patricians and Publians. In 445 BC, the Lex Canulia was passed by the Senate under pressure from the Plebs. This allowed for intermarriage between members of the patrician and Publian classes.

Having restored their rights, there was relative calm between patricians and plebleans for several generations. This isn't to say that the plebs were happy with their status, but there were no flare-ups between the classes. The plebs had their tribunes and the patricians pretty much had everything else. The next big change in patrician-pleblean relations took place in 367 BC.

The Poblian tributes that year, Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Liturnius, proposed a law mandating that one of the two consuls, the highest political office in Rome, must be a Poblian, thus breaking the patrician monopoly on this key position. Additionally, the proposed law restricted the amount of public land that any individual could hold and placed restrictions on interest rates, aiming to address the growing economic inequality between the classes.

This law became known as the Lex Licinia Sextia, and it was a milestone in advancing the rights of plebs. Publians were now on an equal footing as patricians in the highest office in the republic. One result of this law was that it also opened the door to the two other highest offices in Rome to plebs, dictator and censor, as the holder of those offices had to be a former consul.

The end of the conflict of the orders is usually defined to have ended in 287 BC with the passage of the Lex Hortensia. It made plebiscites, those being laws passed by the Pavilion assembly, binding on all Roman citizens, including patricians. Previously, plebiscites only applied to pavilions, limiting their effectiveness.

The Lex Hortensia effectively equalized the legislative power of the Poblian Assembly with the traditional patrician-dominated Senate, marking the formal end of the Conflict of the Orders. While this was the end of the period known as the Conflict of the Orders, it was hardly the end of the evolution of the relations between plebs and patricians.

All magisterial positions were eventually opened to plebs, and a law passed by the plebiscite known as the Ovinian plebiscite allowed censors to appoint new senators, allowing plebs a path for Senate membership. All religious positions were eventually opened up to plebeians as well. There were consul tickets with patricians and plebeians both running together to broaden their voter base.

As Roman political institutions opened up to everyone, that is, assuming you were a male and a citizen, it shifted from birth and class status to something known as nobilitas, or nobility. Nobilitas was something that was more akin to merit. It was something that could be earned either through military heroics or through political acumen.

Someone who was the first person in their family to serve in the Senate, or later on to be elected consul, was considered a novus homo, or a new man. The famed Roman orator Cicero was perhaps the most notable person who was a novus homo. He was a plebeian and the first member of his family to have been elected consul.

Other notable Publians during the late Republican period include Marius, who led one of the factions in the Roman Civil War, Crassus, who was a member of the First Triumvirate and the richest man in Rome, and Pompey Magnus, Crassus' partner in the Triumvirate and Rome's greatest general at that time.

Being a member of a patrician family always carried with it some cachet, but eventually it didn't necessarily bring you any legal advantage. It would sort of be like being a member of the Rockefeller family, five generations after John D. Rockefeller, or being born into an aristocratic family in modern Europe well past the era of aristocrats.

Going into the imperial period, being a patrician became even more meaningless. Emperors would often elevate entire families of men who served them to patrician status just because it was a very cheap reward. Likewise, many emperors came from the very lowest ranks of Roman society. What Rome experienced during the two centuries of the conflict of the orders was not dissimilar to what other cultures and civilizations experienced throughout history.

It didn't establish anything close to a perfectly equitable system, but it did at least create opportunities for the best and most ambitious, who just happened to be born as Poblians. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiefer. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day.

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