What were some of the reforms gained by the plebeians?

Answer 1

The Table of Laws, which saw the Roman legal system written down,so the law could be equally applied to all.

Tribune of the Plebs, an elected official who could veto legislation on behalf of the Plebs if it was seen as unfair towards them as a group.

Answer 2

The Plebs comprised all the population who were not Patricians - that is the vast majority, ranging from the poor unpropertied to very rich Equestrians. The Patricians could not operate without their cooperation - political, military and economic.

They were able to exert their influence through:

· Initially they used secession - simply leaving the city and camping out until the helpless Particians agreed to reforms.

· Through this and then using these concessions to gain more progressively, they gained voting rights through three assemblies of the people - Centuriate, Tribal and then additionally their own (which excluded the Patricians) - the Plebeian Assembly.

· They gained ten Tribunes of the Plebs (one for each tribe) who sat in the Senate and had power to introduce legislation and veto resolutions of the Senate.

· The Tribunes of the Plebs became Senators the following year, so the originally Patrician senate was progressively diluted by a yearly intake of 'New Men'.

· By the time of the Principate (Augustus onwards) attrition through civil war and dilution meant that the Patricians were so few as to be no longer relevant, Patrician becoming an honorific tiitle.

Yes, the word plebeian did refer to all non-patricians. However, the rich plebeians were not equestrians. When they were given the title of equite (equestrian) the word plebeian with reference to the rich ones became redundant (see below). The poor were not necessarily unpropertied. In fact, the small peasant-proprietors gave the (poor) plebeian movement political muscle by being the ones who refused to join the levy, which was their strongest political weapon.

· The 1st plebeian secession created a state within the state. The poor plebeians did not feel that the Roman state would address their grievances. Therefore, they created their own representatives who acted as defenders of their interests, the plebeian tribunes (who were rich and educated plebeians), and their own separate assembly: the plebeian council. These initially were an alternative to the institutions of the Roman state and when they returned to Rome they established the Aventine Hill as their territory which they run by themselves.

· The plebeians (both rich and poor) already had voting rights and could already vote in in the assembly of the soldiers (centuriata) and of the tribes. The plebeian council was for discussing and voting plebeian resolutions (plebiscites). Originally plebiscites were nor recognised as laws binding on all citizens (i.e. including the patricians)

· Originally there were 2 plebeian tribunes and they were then increased to 10. They were not connected to the tribes. Rome had 21 tribes then. They never sat in the senate as they were officials. The senate did not propose laws. This was originally done by the consuls who proposed bills put to the vote of the assembly of the soldiers or the assembly of the tribes. When the plebiscites became recognised as laws binding on all citizens, the tribunes became the main proposers of legislation. They did so by proposing bills to the plebeian council.

· The rich plebeians who acted as leaders of the plebeian movement did not gain access to the senate via the tribunate. They progressively gained access to the offices of state which had been exclusively patrician. When they gained access to the top office, the consulship, they also gained access to the senate as ex consuls sat in the senate. These new men were the (rich) plebeians who became consuls without having a consul in their ancestry. The senate was not progressively diluted because each year one consul was patrician and the other was plebeian. Therefore, the new intake was 50-50. Moreover, not all senators were ex consuls and the censor had the job to enroll senators. He could act so as to keep the patrician contingent high.

· In the process of the rich plebeians using their leadership of the plebeian movement to gain access to the offices of state, they became part of a new ruling class: a patrician-plebeian oligarchy. This was achieved through the support of liberal patricians who countered conservative patricians' opposition to this development. These rich plebeian were also incorporated into the nobility by making them members of the equite (cavalryman) rank and turning this rank into the lower tier of the aristocracy/ nobility - the patricians being the upper tier. The patrician/non-patrician distinction among the upper crust of society became irrelevant as rich people previously called plebeians were now part of the aristocracy/nobility. The word plebeian now referred only to the poor.

The rich plebeians turned their back on poor plebeians and 287 BC, the year of their admission to the consulship, is seen as the end of the conflict of the orders (between patricians and plebeians) which had started with the first plebeian secession in 494 BC. One century after this, the (poor) plebeian movement became revolutionary again under the leadership of the Gracchi brothers. They then became the support base of the liberal populists (populares) in their struggles against the conservatives (optimates). They lost their political weight in the time of Augustus. Tiberius abolished the plebeian council.

Answer 3

they fought and fought to get the respect of the dictor.