Roman Class War

The Struggle of the Orders

There is sufficient evidence to indicate that class war did existed in Rome. According to the Oxford English Dictionary war could be define as “A state of competition, conflict, or hostility between different people or groups” (OED). The Conflict of the Orders also known as the Struggle of the Orders was a political struggle between two orders in Roman society. The political conflict involved two classes known as the patricians and the plebeians. The Patricians were referred as the aristocratic class who came to monopolized Rome’s political and religious institutions. The plebeians, who are initially referred as nonpatricians were the common people of Rome. In the early centuries of the Roman republic the plebeians suffered under the rule of the patrician order; the upper and lower classes of the plebeian order were prohibited from Rome’s political and religious institutions. In addition, they were also imposed to unjust laws, like debtors laws. In addition, plebeians did not have the rights to appeal against the laws imposed by the patrician government. The reason why a class war existed in Rome is because the plebeians demanded political equality; as a result of, not having the privileges to participate in Rome’s political and religious institutions.

In order to demonstrate that class wars did existed in Rome, one must demonstrate and define the different class structures that existed in Roman society; and demonstrate how the Romans define class. The Latin term ordo is defined as a citizen’s social and political rank; in English the term ordo can be translated as rank or class. The English word for class, in Latin, it translates to classis, which means a classification on wealth. After the removal o...

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... over time their land holdings became too small to support them. As a result, they were obligated to sell off their land, causing large landowners to monopolized access to public lands. In order to solve the issues of land monopolization and the concerns over debt, major reforms such as the Licinio-Sextian Laws were proposed by C. Licinius Stolo and L. Sextius Lateranus , Lewis and Reinhold state “Although this provision was only loosely enforced, it initiated an era of land allotments to impoverished citizen-soldiers” (Lewis, 129). These reforms were established to relive poor plebeian soldiers from debt and high interest rates that were impose to them. The reforms restricted the amount of land a proprietor could own. In addition, as a result of the successful conquests in central Italy, small farm landholdings were created for the impoverished Roman soldier.