CLA231H1 Lecture 5: Lecture 5
Document Summary
Lecture topic: roman expansion in italy and war with pyrrhus. Small group of leading families that had already been prominent during the monarchy. Supplied all of the (cid:373)agistrates, (cid:272)o(cid:374)trolled (cid:373)ost of the (cid:449)ealth et(cid:272). No matter how high a family climbed, they could never become patrician if they weren"t in the first place. You could not go from being a plebeian to a patrician. Could slip out of it, but not into it. Co(cid:374)tai(cid:374)ed the rest of the ro(cid:373)a(cid:374) (cid:272)itize(cid:374)s the (cid:448)ast (cid:373)ajorit(cid:455) Or at least it (cid:373)ight of i(cid:374)for(cid:373)atio(cid:374) is(cid:374)"t too pre(cid:272)ise. As a whole, this group was much poorer than patricians. But also had families with considerable wealth and prestige. Within about a decade of the foundation of the republic (509 bce), the plebs tried to force the patricians into accepting constitutional reform, reform that would allow for more plebeian input as to how the government was run.