orders

orders, at Rome in the early republic, the two hereditary estates or broad social divisions of the Roman people, namely patricians (the rich) and plebeians (the poor); each had its own privileges and disabilities sanctioned by law, religion, and custom. The practical distinctions between patricians and plebeians largely disappeared after 366 BC. In the first century BC the term ‘order’ denotes only the senatorial or equestrian order. Cicero's concordia ordinum, ‘harmony of the orders’, was the union of senators and equestrians; see CICERO (1) 3.