Class battles (Rome)

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The class struggles were a series of social conflicts in the early Roman Republic . They broke shortly after their establishment around the year 509 BC. And ended in 367 BC. With the leges Liciniae Sextiae , according to another interpretation 287 BC. With the Lex Hortensia . In essence, they resulted from the contrast between patricians and plebeians . The special power of the patricians as descendants of the old noble families was based on the fact that they had a monopoly on the occupation of offices and the priesthood and thus the exercise of auspices . It should be noted that a lot is controversial due to the poor sources. The following corresponds to the traditional view, which is no longer shared by all researchers - even the question of when there were patricians and plebeians is controversial.

prehistory

If one follows the sources, which emerged much later, the patricians already existed in the Roman royal era . Opposite them were the plebeians as a heterogeneous mass of the populus Romanus . The poorer among them were confronted with three main problems: At the beginning of the Roman Republic there was a lack of land; many estates belonging to Roman citizens were too small to be managed effectively with the methods customary at the time; For many, bad harvests could lead to personal catastrophe.

Another problem that threatened the plebeians was debt bondage : Anyone who was in need and was forced to take out a seed loan but was ultimately unable to settle the debt and could not find a creditor had to use his labor and got into debt slavery (lat. nexum ). Another privilege enjoyed by the patricians was knowledge of the city-state laws . As patrons, they represented their clients in court. In order to be able to inspect the legislation for themselves, the plebeians demanded that the law in force be published.

Exodus of the plebeians

Resistance against the exclusive rights of the patricians arose from the group of plebeians who demanded alleviation of the pressing problems and participation in politics. They decided in 494 BC To leave Rome ( secessio plebis ) to gather on a nearby mountain, the Mons Sacer , and to set up an organization of their own. According to the report of Titus Livius , the consular Agrippa Menenius Lanatus was able to persuade them to return by telling them the parable of the stomach and the limbs. In ancient historical research, this episode is referred to the realm of legends.

As a countervailing power to the patrician officials, they elected tribunes of the people in their own assembly ( lat.concilium plebis ) , which, protected by a collective oath ( sacrosanctitas ), could henceforth protect Roman citizens from arbitrary access by the magistrates , through the right of intercession . They were also authorized to convene the assemblies of the plebeians and - initially only applicable to the plebeians - to pass laws ( plebiscites ).

successes

In the year 451/450 BC The organized plebs achieved their first partial success: the Twelve Tables Law was cast in bronze after its codification and in 449 BC. Placed on the Roman Forum. By banning the marriage between patricians and plebeians in it, at the same time the rise of the plebeians into the circle of patricians was prevented, whereby the patriciate experienced its final graduation as a noble caste. But this law was already in 445 BC. Due to great resistance on both sides. The plebeian organization saw further successes in the following decades. Soon plebeians were also allowed to occupy the formerly purely patrician offices. This and the introduction of some laws that contributed to social justice led to the formation of a new class based on wealth, influence and services for the state, the nobility .

One of the most important laws brought the plebeians the opening of the highest office of the cursus honorum , that of the consulate (366 BC), regulated in the leges Liciniae Sextiae . Further laws strengthened the position of the plebeians and increasingly brought them on a par with the patricians. These included the legally established access among others to the colleges of priests for the plebeians ( Lex Ogulnia 300 v. Chr.), Equality decisions from meetings of the plebs with the Comitia adopted laws ( Lex Hortensia 287 v. Chr.) And the abolition of Bondage. The plebeians thus gained power.

swell

literature

  • Jochen Bleicken : History of the Roman Republic (= Oldenbourg floor plan of history. Vol. 2). 6th edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-486-49666-2 , pp. 20-28.
  • Tim J. Cornell: The Beginnings of Rome. Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC). Routledge, London et al. 1995, ISBN 0-415-01596-0 .
  • Kurt Raaflaub : The Conflict of the Orders in Archaic Rome: A Comprehensive and Comparative Approach. In: Kurt Raaflaub (Ed.): Social Struggles in Archaic Rome. New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 1986, ISBN 0-520-05528-4 , pp. 1-51.
  • Arthur Rosenberg : Democracy and Class Struggle in Antiquity. Bielefeld 1921. New edition Ahriman Verlag, Freiburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8948-4810-1 .

Remarks

  1. ^ ,, The "class struggles" of antiquity - as far as they were really "class struggles" and not rather class struggles - were initially peasant (and probably also: artisan) debtors threatened by debt bondage against creditors living in the city. Max Weber : "Economy and Society. New Isenburg 2005. P. 682
  2. ↑ Hans Georg Gundel : Menenius . In: The Little Pauly . Dtv, Munich 1979, Vol. 3, Sp. 1213; Heinz Bellen : Fundamentals of Roman history. From the royal times to the transition of the republic to the principate . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1994, p. 19.