The Classes and Social Strata in Ancient Rome

A Look at Inequality Between the Orders of Roman Society

Jul 4, 2009

In a city where only the rich have to ability to set or change the rules, it was nearly impossible for a man to progress further than the class into which he was born.

Social allotment in ancient Rome was set by legal precedents, not simply discrimination. Wealth, Roman citizenship and freedom were the elements factoring into an individual’s standing. Freedom was categorised into three further sections: slaves, freedpersons (i.e. ex-slaves) and free persons. Although wealth and freedom were always causes of division, the social status set by one’s citizenship became more flexible as the roman timeline progressed through the republic.

The distribution of wealth in ancient Rome is not accurately comparable to that of our modern society. In our society the term ‘middle class’ encompasses a wide variety of jobs and is easily the largest ‘social’ class. In ancient Rome the vast majority were extremely poor with few earning enough to live comfortably and even fewer in the extremely wealthy upper orders; those controlling the city.

The Aristocracy

Rome worked hard to prove that she was, in fact, a democracy and hence called herself a republic. Polybius is adamant of this and describes how no law is passed and no action taken without the consultation and vote of the masses. This reputation was created and protected by the aristocratic classes. These consisted of the patricians, the senatorial order and later the equestrian class, publicans and the nobles This pretence of a democratic governing body was made possible by the fact that positions of influence in political Rome were unpaid and therefore only the independently wealthy, usually by means of land-ownership and agriculture, could afford to hold them.

The Patrician and Plebeian Classes

When Rome was under monarchic rule, the positions of officials and advisers to the king were filled by the men of the wealthiest families and were known as ‘fathers’ of the state or ‘patricians’. After the monarchy’s dissolution they assumed control of the city and formed the basis of the aristocracy. The multitude, which included all those outside the patrician class, was known as plebeian.

Plebeians could not, at first, be politically active, become priests, join the senatorial order or even marry into patrician families. By 287 BC, the wealthier plebeian families had, after a great deal of political lobbying, achieved a certain amount of equality. The aristocracy then expanded to include the plebeians who had managed to become politically influential. Those plebeians came to be titled nobiles or ‘nobles’.

Patricians and plebeians interacted through the practice of patronage. This was the system by which the wealthier plebeians associated themselves with a powerful patrician, of their own choice, for their own political and social advancement. They were known as ‘clients’ to their patrician and their guidelines for how they were supposed to support, aid, protect and, most crucially, vote for their chosen patrician were said to have been set down by Romulus himself.

The Senate

Admission into the Senate, as with everything else in Rome, had to be bought. A man with the property value of 800,000 sesterces could then earn a life-long membership to the senatorial order for himself and his family. Those in the Senate were socially and sometimes legally forbidden from partaking in business ventures or indeed any form of trade. In 218 BC it was made illegal for a member of the Senate to own cargo ships, for example. Senators wishing to make money from the expanding empire had to therefore hire dealers on the sly.

Equestrians

Equestrians, or equites, were men from senatorial families who chose monetary gain from the empire than a career in politics. Their title having probably come from service in the cavalry, as only wealthy men could afford to keep a horse. After 100 BC, this wealth also came to play in their admittance into the equestrian order, the property qualification of which was 400,000 sesterces. Despite having abstained from the higher political offices, equestrians held a certain level of influence due to their enormous wealth.

Publicans

With the development of an empire came new and previously non-existing prospects for money-making. ‘Public contracts’ for all manner of industry, including road construction and mining in the colonies as well as provincial tax management, was leased by the Senate. These lucrative positions were awarded to the highest bidder and the new ‘publicans’ were the vanguard to the emergence of wealthy non-political families.

Inequality between the orders was so pronounced that the manner of punishment for a crime was dictated by one’s position in society; according to Julius Paulus, only the lower orders, or humiliores, would have been subject to corporal punishment or were “condemned to the mines”, the poorer an individual, the worse the mutilation. The upper class, honestiores, were only required to pay a fine or suffer exile for a while.The class into which an individual was born was usually the one in which they stayed and, as there was almost no hope of advancement, the lower orders were seemingly accepting of this and resigned to their status.

The copyright of the article The Classes and Social Strata in Ancient Rome in Roman History is owned by Claudia J. Beresford. Permission to republish The Classes and Social Strata in Ancient Rome in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.