How did the plebeians eventually gain a larger role in in the roman republic?

Answer 1

The Conflict of the Orders between patricians (the aristocracy) and plebeians (the commoners, both rich and poor) had two strands. It started with a rebellion of the poor plebeians. The grievances of the poor plebeians were economic, primarily indebtedness, the interest rates of loans and insufficient land for the peasants. The rich plebeians became the leaders of the movement and also had another agenda: power-sharing with the patricians. The patricians monopolised political power by monopolising the seats of the senate and the consulship (the office of the two annually elected heads of the Republic).

The poor plebeians rebelled because the patrician-controlled Roman state, refused to meet their demand for protection for defaulting debtors from creditors (who were patricians) who imprisoned them, tortured them and sometimes sold them as slaves. At that time the rich ensured labour from the poor through debt bondage/slavery (nexus). The poor were locked into perpetual indebtedness at unaffordable levels so that debt was repaid through labour services. This was a system which lent itself to the abuse mentioned above.

During their first rebellion the poor plebeians created their own assembly to deliberate on their issues (the Plebeian Council) and leaders for their movement (the plebeian tribunes). In the negotiations to end the rebellion, the plebeians obtained the recognition of their assembly and their leaders by the Roman state. The plebeian tribunes were recognised as representatives of the plebeians, but not as officers of state and were not integrated in the patrician-controlled Roman state.

The educated rich plebeians became the leaders of the plebeian movement. They used its agitations to fight for power-sharing with the patricians and to gain access to the consulship and other offices of state which were created as the Republic developed and to the seats of the senate. They achieved this and were co-opted into a patrician-plebeian oligarchy. They also were given equite (cavalryman) status. The equites were the second highest rank of Roman society. At this point the rich plebeians turned their back on the poor, whose economic grievances were never addressed properly.