Plebs, Plebes
A part of the population of Rome, which derived its origin mainly from the conquered Latins
settled on Roman territory by the kings Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Martius. At first these
possessed only the passive rights of citizenship, being excluded from all its privileges as
well as from service in war, and forming a community sharply separated from the old citizens,
the patricians. In particular, they did not possess the right of concluding valid marriages
with patricians, although they were otherwise equal in matters of private law. When, by the
constitution of Servius Tullius, they were compelled to serve in war and to pay war-taxes,
they obtained the right of voting with the patricians in the Comitia Centuriata. After the
establishment of the Republic in B.C. 510, the plebeians began the struggle with the
patricians, who were then in sole possession of the secular and priestly offices. The aim of
the plebeians was to secure complete equality of rights, answering to their equality of
duties. An important engine in this struggle was the tribunate of the people (see
Tribuni Plebis) established in 491, as well as the
Comitia Tributa. (See
Comitia.) The plebeians had
the chief weight in that assembly, and after B.C. 448 it was invested with the right of
passing decrees binding on the whole people. Among their first acquisitions was the right of
entering into valid marriages with the patricians (B.C. 445). One after another, the plebeians
gained admittance to the most important offices of State and the priesthoods, down to the year
300, so that only insignificant offices remained reserved for the patricians. (See
Patricii.) When the struggle of the orders was thus
settled, the opposition between patricians and plebeians lost its practical importance. The
two orders were completely blended together, and the place of the aristocracy of birth was
taken by the aristocracy of office, the members of which were called
nobiles (q. v.). From this time the name
plebs passed to the lower
ranks of the people, as contrasted with this nobler class. See Mommsen,
Römische Forschungen, vol. i., and id.
Röm.
Staatsrecht, vol. iii.
