Patricians and Plebeians under Etruscan Rule The Patricians Create a Republic Between 616 and 509 B.C.E., the Over time, the Etruscans ruled Rome. During this patricians began to time, Roman society was divided into resent Etruscan two classes, patricians and plebeians. rule. In 509 B.C.E., a group of patricians, Upper-class citizens, called led by Lucius Julius patricians, came from a small group Brutus, rebelled. of wealthy landowners. Patrician They drove out the comes from the Latin word pater, last Etruscan king. In which means “father”. The patricians place of a choose from among themselves the monarchy, they “fathers of the state”, the men who created a republic. advised the Etruscan king. Patricians In a republic, controlled the most valuable land. elected officials Patricians were the elite in They also held the important military govern for the Roman society and religious offices. Brutus denounced the Etruscan kings and was people. elected one of the first consuls in the new republic. Free non-patricians called plebeians were mostly peasants, laborers, craftspeople, and shopkeepers. To the patricians, “the people” meant themselves, not the plebeians. The word plebeian comes from plebs, The patricians put most of the power in the hands of the Senate. The which means ”the common people”. Senate was a group of 300 patricians elected by patricians. The Plebeians made up about 95 percent of senators served for life. They also appointed other government Rome’s population. They could not be officials and served as judges. priests or government officials. They had little voice in the government. Yet they Two elected leaders, called consuls, shared command of the were still forced to serve in the army. army. The Senate was supposed to advise the consuls. In fact, the Senate’s decisions were treated as law.

The creation of the republic gave Rome a more democratic form of government. But only patricians could participate in that Plebeians were the commoners, government. peasants, of Roman society

The Plebeians Rebel The Plebeians Gain Political Equality Rome was now a After the plebeians revolts, the patricians agreed to let the plebeians republic, but patricians elect officials called tribunes of the Plebs. The tribunes spoke for the held all the power. plebeians in the senate and with the consuls. Later, tribunes gained They made sure only the power to veto, or overrule, actions by the Senate and other they could be a part of government officials. Over time, the number of tribunes grew from the government as two to ten. senators or consuls. Plebeians could also elect a lawmaking body, the Council of Plebs. Plebeians had to obey However, the council made laws only for plebeians, not for patricians. their decisions. While the plebeians had gained some important rights, they still had Because laws were not less power than the patricians. Over the next 200 years, the plebeians written down, they staged a series of protests to gradually win political equality. were often changed or First, they demanded that the laws be written down. In that way, the interpreted to benefit patricians couldn’t change them at will. Around the year 451 B.C.E., the patricians. As a the patricians agreed. The laws were published on tablets called the result, a small group of Twelve Tables. For years, the plebeians struggled to gain a share families held all the Next, in 367 B.C.E., a new law said that one of the two consuls had to of the political power enjoyed by patricians. power in Rome. be a plebeian. Former consuls held seats in the Senate, so this change also allowed plebeians to become senators. Fighting for what they wanted, plebeians began to demand more Finally, in 287 B.C.E., the plebeians gained the right to pass laws for all rights. The struggle between the plebeians and patricians is known as Roman citizens. Now, assemblies of all Roman citizens, such as the the Conflict of the Orders, a conflict between the two social classes. Citizens’ Association, could approve or reject laws. These plebeian The conflict grew especially heated during times of war. assemblies also nominated the consuls, the tribunes, and the member Plebeians had to fight in the army even though the patricians decided of the Senate. After 200 years of struggle, plebeians had won their whether to go to war. Plebeians represented this. fight for equality. The struggle took a dramatic turn in a year 494 B.C.E. By then, Rome’s republican style government inspired future leaders in Europe Rome was a city around forty thousand people, mostly plebeians. and America. Rome became an example of a government ruled by a Angry over their lack of power, the plebeians marched out of the city constitution. Future political thinkers also pointed to Roman ideals of and camped on a nearby hill, refusing to come back until the elected assemblies, citizenship, and civic duty. They adopted the patricians met their demands. model of government bodies that could check each other’s power. Rome was in crisis. Work in the city and on the farms came to a halt. Without the plebeians, patricians feared that the army would be helpless if an enemy struck at Rome. The patricians had little choice but to compromise.