Daily Question: 3/15/11

How was the Struggle of the Orders influential on later Roman politics? 


The struggle of the orders was influential on the later Roman politics in a very specific way. There were two main classes in Roman culture. The patricians were the wealthy aristocrat families that had old ties in the country. The plebeians were all the rest of the people. They could be regular or poor, or maybe just wealthy but know body knows them. These classes started to come upon very big problems and fights because the patricians could have representatives or make laws the the plebeians didn't agree with just because the patricians were wealthier. The plebeians felt that they had no rights or power and they didn't think it was fair. There was all of this fighting and they didn't want to cause a big civil war. This was when the struggle of the orders came about. The plebeians made a deal with the patricians so that they can have a "tribune of the plebs." This one person was the tribune for all the plebeian people and they had the right to veto or deny a law by anyone. This helped the plebeians tremendously. It helped them be able to have a little bit more freedom because if the Patricians made laws that the tribune and plebeians didn't agree with, the tribune could just deny it. The patricians had to think more about their laws and be a little bit more fair. This didn't only help the plebeians though, all of Rome was helped because the country did not have as much if not any turmoil anymore. In the long run, this also supported the country because everybody was on relatively good terms with each other and Rome became very strong. So, if at one point their was a struggle of the orders, it ended up being great for the country of Rome and just made them stronger.