Plebeians and Patricians

In Roman society, there were two main social classes. The patricians and the plebeians. Patricians were the wealthy and powerful Romans. They were the only ones able to have places in the government and constantly made unfair decisions that only benefitted themselves. The plebeians were the less wealthy Romans who were artisans, merchants, etc. who couldn't hold positions of power. Because of the patrician's unfair advantages when it came to politics, plebeians were able to elect tribunes. Tribunes were people who protected plebeian rights when it came to unfair laws. Plebeians also pushed for the Twelve Tables to be created. These were tablets with written laws on them. They were hung up in the forums (Roman center of government) and the written laws prevented patricians from altering the laws for their benefit. The social classes of plebeians and patricians are very similar to the social classes in Ancient Greece. Before democracy in Greece, the rich people in society held more power when it came to government decisions. For a long time, no middle class grecian citizens could vote or hold power, similar to the plebeians, and they were constantly under wealthy rule. In conclusion, in both Roman and Greek governments, the wealthy held the most power at first and over time the middle and low class citizens fought to have more say in the government.