Why were the plebeians important to Rome?

Answer 1

The plebians were the commoners who farmed sold stuff and did most of the jobs that held the empire together you see without the commoners the rich would really have no power and no jobs would get done

Answer 2

The plebeians and patricians were important in Rome because they were the two classes that could be traced back to the beginning of the city. To the ancestor conscious Romans, these two groups were the founders of the city and even though the plebeians started out poor, they gained their civil rights and became on a par with the patricians both in wealth and political advantages. They were the nobility or the aristocrats of Roman society.

Going back to the origins of Rome was part of patrician self-definition. The plebeians were not seen as having their roots from the beginning of Rome. In fact, according to the tradition, it was the 4th king, Ancus Marcius, who created the plebeians by moving some of the people from the cities he conquered to the Aventine Hill. This is likely to be a misinterpretation by ancient historians of the fact that Aventine Hill became associated with the plebeians and was an area outside the scared boundaries of the city where some immigrants settled. Historians in the early 20th century took this as meaning that the plebeians were originally outsiders without political rights.This is now discarded, but it is likely that urban immigrants and peasants incorporated in the rural territory of Rome though expansion were a component of the plebeians. It seems that Rome's continuous growth gave political weight to the plebeians by swelling their ranks and that their political entitlements became an issue with the 5th and 6th kings. The picture is very unclear.

The word plebeian had two meanings. One was a derogatory term for the poor. The other, was non-patrician and included the rich non-patricians who took on the leadership of the plebeian movement which started with a rebellion by the poor in 494 BC due to their economic grievances. The poor took direct action and rich plebeians became the leaders. This created a 200 year long conflict of the orders (between patricians and plebeians). Rich plebeians used the movement to gradually open up access to the offices of state for themselves. When they gained access to the top office, the consulship, it was the end of the conflict of the orders because they turned their back of the poor they were supposed to represent. They were co-opted into the elite and became part of a patrician-plebeian oligarchy. The poor just remained poor. Liberal patricians supported this development, while conservative ones opposed it. The conflict of the order had been the source of a lot of internal instability for Rome. The (poor) plebeian movement became a revolutionary force again one century later.

Answer 3

Plebians were the ones who attended the farm gave the food to rome to trade for better food they were also the ones who made the Republic so they can choose their leaders