The Conflict of the Orders: The NeverEnding Story

1
The Conflict of the OrdersThe Never-Ending
Story
2
The Conflict of the OrdersStarting with the
Conclusion

• The 200-year conflict of orders served to
  replace an aristocracy of birth with an
  aristocracy based on political offices and
  wealth, particularly land-based wealth. The
  conflict did not destroy the hierarchical,
  class-based nature of Roman society, nor did it
  greatly improve the lives or the prospects of the
  poorer segments of society.

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The Conflict of the OrdersThe Never-Ending Issue

• The Republic in its early form was largely a
  transfer of power from the monarch to the
  wealthiest classes in Rome. This dominance of
  Roman law, finances, and foreign policy by the
  patricians instantly produced resentment among
  the plebeians.
• From its inception in 509 BCE to its demise at
  the hands of Caesar, the political history of the
  Roman Republic is a tumultuous, chaotic, and
  often violent conflict between the two classes
  put simply, the rich and the poor -- in Rome
  vying for political power.
• Ti. And C. Gracchus
• Populares v. Optimates
• Roman Revolution
• Economics of late empire

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Conflict of the OrdersThe Ordines

• Patricians
• Highly privileged aristocratic class of Roman
  citizens
• Controlled all religious and political offices
• Membership achieved only by birth

• Plebeians
• All Roman citizens who are not patricians
• Forbidden to marry patricians no possibility of
  becoming patrician
• No right of appeal against decisions of the
  patrician government/no laws codified or
  published
• Advantage in size of order
• Use collective bargaining and resistance/strategy
  of secessio

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Traditional Story

• Patrician clans abused their position
• Used creditor's right of nexum to take plebeian
  debtors into bondage and sell them as slaves
• Favored patricians over plebeians in court cases
• Ignored/overrode the will of the Centuriate
  Assembly

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Secession 1 494 BCE

• Plebs secede to Sacred Mount outside Rome
• Form concilium plebis
• Formed Tribunate
• Sacrosanctitas
• Ius auxiliandi
• Ius intercessio (veto power)
• Power to act enforced by pledge of plebeians to
  kill any person who harmed a tribune during his
  term of office.
• Plebeian aediles also established

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Intervening Years

• 486. Sp. Cassius proposes land distribution to
  needy peasants
• 485. Sp. Cassius killed on charges of treason
  (perduellio)
• 471. Lex Publilia legally recognizes Concilium
  Plebis and tribunes punishes regal
  aspirations)
• 462. Demand for codification of laws first voiced
  by tribune Terentilius Harsa
• 451. First Decemvirate
• 450. Second Decemvirate

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Secession 2 450 BCE

• Codification of The Twelve Tables, displayed on
  tablets) in the Forum Romanum
• Limit on patria potestas
• Recognize usus (marriage sine manu)
• Provide penalties against witchcraft
• Preserve provocatio, right to appeal sentences of
  death or exile
• Forbid intermarriage of patricians and plebeians
• Forbid burial of dead or cremation with city
  walls
• Prohibit provocative displays of luxury or
  emotion at funerals

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Secession 3 449 BCE

• L. Valerius Potitus and M. Horatius Barbatus pass
  Valerio-Horatian Laws
• Validates plebescita, subject to ratification by
  auctoritas patrum
• Extends provocatio
• Legally confirms sacrosanctitas
• Orders senatus consulta (resolutions of the
  Senate) be stored in temple of Ceres under care
  of aediles

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Intervening Years

• 445. Tribune C. Canuleius sponsors Lex Canuleia
  allowing intermarriage
• 444. Institution of military tribunes with
  consular power (tribuni militum consulari
  potestate)
• 440. Sp. Maelius attempts to relieve grain
  shortage, L. Minucius Augurinus exposes this as
  tyrannical plot, C. Servilius Ahala kills Maelius
  
• 376. Tribunes Stolo and Sextius propose
  legislation
• 367. Licinio-Sextian Laws passed (opens
  consulship to plebeians, limits amount of ager
  publicus any individual might hold to 500 iugera)
  
• 366. Curule aedileship to alternate between
  patricians and plebeians
• 357. Tribunes fix maximum rate of interest at
  unciarium foenus (8.33?), government tax of 5
  on manumission
• 352. Quinqueviri mensarii appointed (5 men to
  help debtors in trouble)
• 347. Maximum rate of interest reduced by half

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Secession 4 342 BCE

• Lex Genucia put forward by tribune L. Genucius
• Bans lending at interest (probably a temporary
  measure that soon fell into disuse)
• Prohibits concurrent tenure of office
• Prohibits repeated tenure of office within 10
  years
• Requires one consul to be plebeian and permits
  both consuls to be plebeians (first occurs in 172
  BCE)

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Intervening Years

• 339. Leges Publiliae requires one of the censors
  be plebeian requires patrum auctoritas be given
  before a law is proposed and voted on in the
  Comitia Centuriata (effectively cancels patrician
  veto in this assembly) cancels patrician right
  to veto legislation of the Comitia Tributa
• 326 or 313. Lex Poetilia provides debtor relief
• 304. Ius civile Flavianum of aedile Cn. Flavius
• 300. M. Valerius Maximus passes Lex Valeria de
  provocatione (grants every Roman citizen right to
  appeal capital sentence imposed within the city
  Q. and Cn. Ogulnius pass Lex Ogulnia (opens the 2
  major priestly colleges pontifices and augures
  to plebeians)

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Secession 5 287 BCE

• Final secessio results in plebeian Quintus
  Hortensius being named dictator.
• He carries Lex Hortensia which ends the "Conflict
  of the Orders" by giving plebescita the force of
  laws (leges) so they bind the whole community,
  including patricians

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The Result A House Divided

• The result of the Conflict of the Orders amounts
  to the establishment of two parallel systems of
  government.
• The balancing principle between the two
  governments was mos maiorum custom and
  tradition an agreement that the Comitia Tributa
  would limit itself to legislation concerning the
  plebs. This worked
• Until Ti. Gracchus came along.

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The Enigma of Empire

• Punic Wars created empire and problems
• Rise of latifundia/Urgent need for land reform/
• Unrest in city states
• Dispossessed including veterans flood Rome
• New political equation
• Nobiles
• Equites
• Plebs
• Optimates vs. Populares

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The Conflict Renewed

• Key Points
• Involves three groups nobiles, equites, and
  plebs
• Optimates and Populares represent temporary
  coalitions, not political parties
• Distinguished by methods Authority of Senate vs.
  popular assemblies
• But boils down into struggle between
  conservatives and reformers

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The Conflict Renewed

• Optimates vs. Populares
• Rise of Equestrian class drive by passage in 218
  of Lex Claudia, which prohibited senators from
  engaging in overseas trade
• Law had good intent (avoidance of possible
  conflicts of interest in the Senate's
  deliberations on foreign affairs), but had
  unforeseen consequences
• Limited senatorial investment to land
• Gave rise to wealthy merchant class the equites
• Combined with influx of dispossessed to Rome,
  gives rise to new political equation.

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The Conflict Renewed

• A High-States Game
• The nobiles and equites had a difficult
  relationship
• While interests often overlapped, they frequently
  found themselves in competition
• Wealthy senators were appointed as provincial
  governors, charged with administering justice,
  watching out for Rome's interests, and overseeing
  the business activities of the equestrian class,
  who were engaged in business ventures
• Both motivated by profit and conflict inevitable

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The Conflict Renewed

• A High-States Game
• The nobiles and equites had a difficult
  relationship
• While interests often overlapped, they frequently
  found themselves in competition
• Wealthy senators were appointed as provincial
  governors, charged with administering justice,
  watching out for Rome's interests, and overseeing
  the business activities of the equestrian class,
  who were engaged in business ventures
• Both motivated by profit and conflict inevitable

20
The Conflict Renewed

• The Result
• Equites X-factor in politics now siding with
  Senate, now with plebs
• As career of Gracchi showed, politics much more
  volatile, with only way to overcome roadblocks a
  resort to violence
• Stage is set for Civil War