Social Class in Rome (original) (raw)

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Social class in Rome| Introduction | Patricians, Plebeians, Slaves and Clients | The hate for Tyrants and Kings | Senate, Assembly and Comitia Curiata | Magistrates, Consuls, Tribunes and Praetors | The Army and the State | Roots of Social Unrest in Rome | Evolution and Structure of the Roman State |

| [Patricians](#The Aristocracy %28Patricians%29) | Plebeians| Slaves | Clients |

This introduction to Social Class and Structure in Rome, it is by no means exhaustive but it does give a flavour of what the class structure was like in ancient Rome. There were four main classes of person in Rome: the [Aristocracy known as "Patricians"](#The Aristocracy %28Patricians%29), the common folk known as "Plebeians", the slaves and finally the free men who came into Rome to conduct business known as "Clients".

## The Aristocracy (Patricians)

From the earliest beginnings of Rome the basic unit of Roman society was the family. Within the family units, the father was to all intents and purposes "owner" of his wife, children and slaves to the same extent that he owned his sword and other material possessions. The head of the family could do whatever he wished with the other members of his direct family, including selling them off as slaves or putting them to death. In the very beginning there were no laws to govern the rights of individuals within the family.

The families were grouped up into clans or "gens". Each gens claimed a common ancestor and they came to make up the aristocracy of Rome. The head of each gens/clan was called "pater" (father) and all the members of these aristocratic families became known as "Patricians".

Read more about the Patricians

## Plebeians

The "plebs" were the vast majority of society and they constituted a social class made of the common folk. Generally speaking they were the descendants of people who had come to Rome after the Patrician families had founded it. Possibly they were descended from freed men or simple immigrants.

Read more about the Plebeians of Rome

Slaves

Everyone knows what a slave is, and in the early days of Rome these persons were largely confined to working in the house. The lord of the house had the same rights over his slaves as he did over his wife and children. He could make a slave into a free man or sell one of his own family members into slavery.

It is generally a mistake to ignore the role of the slaves even if they had no free will or voting rights. Like any other "commodity good", the price of slaves was related to their abundance. Times of conquest brought access to cheap slaves which in turn meant free, extremely cheap labour. This in turn had huge and direct effects on productivity, on the Roman economy and the welfare of the people, whatever their social class.

Slaves could perform all sorts of jobs and in many cases could be extremely well educated people. One could therefore find slaves working in the shops, banks and teaching in schools just as easily as they might be found tilling the land of some rich Patrician.

Read a lot more about slavery in ancient rome and how the slaves found their freedom

## Clients

Persons who had come to Rome such as travelers, merchants and other foreigners, including freed slaves, were generaly known as Clients and effectively formed part of a separate social class.

In the early days only the Patricians had Roman citizenship. Clients wishing to do business in Rome required the support of a Patrician as personal patron. A solid Patrician-Client tie was thus formed. A patrician waking up in the morning would often start off his daily duties by meeting up with a group of his Clients who would have come to visit him at his home in order to ask for his favours and support in some matter. The Clients would return these favours according to their means, whether by working the Patrician's land if they were poor, or by making generous gifts.

Social stigma and taxation laws meant that in later years wealthy Clients tended to be linked with banking and trade whilst the Patricians tended to be focused on land ownership. Through the personal networks of Clients, the Patricians could carry out trade which might otherwise be seen as personally humiliating.

| [Patricians](#The Aristocracy %28Patricians%29) | Plebeians| Slaves | Clients |

Next page about the Roman hate for Tyrants and Kings

| Introduction | Patricians, Plebeians, Slaves and Clients | The hate for Tyrants and Kings | Senate, Assembly and Comitia Curiata | Magistrates, Consuls, Tribunes and Praetors | The Army and the State | Roots of Social Unrest in Rome | Evolution and Structure of the Roman State |

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This page about [Social Class in Rome](#Social Class in Rome)was written by Giovanni Milani-Santarpia for www.mariamilani.com- Rome apartments