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{{Short description|Political conflict in the Roman Republic, 500–287 BC}}
{{Roman government}}
The '''Conflict''' '''of the Orders''', sometimes referred to as the '''Struggle of the Orders''', was a political struggle between the [[plebeians]] (commoners) and [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]]s (aristocrats) of the ancient [[Roman Republic]] lasting from 500 BC to 287 BC in which the plebeians sought political equality with the patricians. It played a major role in the development of the [[History of the Constitution of the Roman Republic|Constitution of the Roman Republic]]. Shortly after the founding of the Republic, this conflict led to a [[Secessio plebis|secession from Rome by the Plebeians]] to the Sacred Mount at a time of war. The result of this [[First secessio plebis|first secession]] was the creation of the office of [[plebeian tribune]], and with it the first acquisition of real power by the plebeians.

At first, only patricians were allowed to stand for election to political office, but over time these laws were revoked, and eventually all offices were opened to the plebeians. Since most individuals who were elected to political office were given membership in the [[Roman Senate]], this development helped to transform the Senate from a body of patricians into a body of both patrician and plebeian aristocrats. This development occurred at the same time that the plebeian legislative assembly, the [[Plebeian Council]], was acquiring additional power. At first, its acts ("[[plebiscite]]s") applied only to plebeians, although after 339 BC, with the institution of laws by the first plebeian dictator [[Quintus Publilius Philo|Q. Publilius Philo]], these acts began to apply to both plebeians and patricians. The most fundamental change, however, was the granting of ''[[tribunicia potestas]]'' (tribunician power) in which tribunes of the plebs could veto unfavorable legislation.

==The Era of Patricians (494–367 BC)==
The Conflict of the Orders began less than 20 years after the Republic was founded. Under the existing system, the poorer plebeians made up the bulk of the Roman army. During their military service, the farms on which their livelihood depended were left abandoned. Unable to earn a sufficient income, many turned to the patricians for aid, which left them open to abuse and even enslavement. As the patricians controlled Roman politics, the plebeians found no help from within the existing political system. Their solution was to go on strike. In 494 BC Rome was at war with three Italic tribes (the [[Aequi]], [[Sabine]] and [[Volsci]]),<ref name="Abbott, 28">Abbott, 28</ref> but the plebeian soldiers, advised by [[Lucius Sicinius Vellutus]], refused to march against the enemy and instead [[First secessio plebis|seceded]] to the [[Monte Sacro|Sacred Mount]] outside Rome. A settlement was negotiated and the patricians agreed that the plebs be given the right to meet in their own assembly, the Plebeian Council (''Concilium Plebis''), and to elect their own officials to protect their rights, the [[tribune|plebeian tribune]] (tribunus ''plebis''). <ref name="Abbott, 28" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Gwyn|first=David|title=The Roman Republic: A Very Short Introduction|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2012|isbn=9780199595112|location=Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX 2 DP, United Kingdom|pages=18}}</ref>

During the 5th century BC, there were a number of unsuccessful attempts to reform Roman [[agrarian law]]s to distribute newly conquered territories amongst the plebs.  In a number of instances, these reforms were advocated by the plebeian tribunes.

In 471 BC, the [[Lex Publilia (471 BC)|Lex Publilia]] was passed, marking an important reform shifting practical power from the patricians to the plebeians. The law transferred the election of the [[tribune of the plebs|tribunes of the plebs]] to the [[Tribal Assembly]] (''comitia populi tributa)'', thereby freeing their election from the influence of the patrician [[Patronage in ancient Rome|clients]].

During the early years of the republic, the plebeians were not allowed to hold magisterial office. While the plebeian tribunes regularly attempted to block legislation unfavorable to their order, the patricians frequently tried to thwart them by gaining the support of another tribune. One example of this occurred in 448 BC when only five tribunes were elected to fill ten positions; following tradition and pressured by the patricians, they co-opted five colleagues, two of whom were patricians. Concerns that the patricians would attempt to influence future elections in this manner, or by obtaining the office themselves to prevent the plebeian tribunes from exercising their powers, led to the passage of the ''[[Lex Trebonia (448 BC)|Lex Trebonia]]'', forbidding the plebeian tribunes from co-opting their colleagues in the future.<ref>Livy, ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri|Ab Urbe Condita]]'', iii. 65.</ref>

In 445 BC, the plebeians demanded the right to stand for election as [[Roman Consul|consul]] (the chief-magistrate of the Roman Republic),<ref name="Abbott, 35">Abbott, 35</ref> but the [[Roman senate|Roman Senate]] refused to grant them this right. Ultimately, a compromise was reached, and while the consulship remained closed to the plebeians, consular command authority ([[imperium]]) was granted to a select number of military tribunes. These individuals, the so-called [[Consular Tribune|consular tribune]]s ("military tribunes with consular powers" or ''tribuni militum consulari potestate'') were elected by the [[Centuriate Assembly]], and the Senate had the power to [[veto]] any such election.<ref name="Abbott, 35">Abbott, 35</ref> This was the first of many attempts by the plebeians to achieve political equality with the Patricians.

Starting around the year 400 BC, a series of wars were fought against several neighboring tribes (in particular the [[Aequi]], the [[Volsci]], the [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]], and the [[Veii]]). The disenfranchised plebeians, who made up significant portion of the army, grew restless from bloodshed while the patrician aristocracy enjoyed the fruits of the resulting conquests.<ref name="Abbott, 35">Abbott, 35</ref> The plebeians, by now exhausted and bitter, demanded real concessions, so the tribunes [[Gaius Licinius Stolo]] and [[Lucius Sextius Lateranus]] passed a law in 367 BC (the [[Lex Licinia Sextia]])<ref name="Abbott, 36, 41">Abbott, 36, 41</ref> which dealt with the economic plight of the plebeians. However, the law also required the election of at least one plebeian consul each year. The opening of the consulship to the plebeians was probably the cause behind the concession of 366 BC, in which the [[praetor]]ship and [[curule aedile]] were both created, but opened only to patricians.<ref name="Abbott, 37">Abbott, 37</ref><ref name="Abbott, 38">Abbott, 38</ref>

Shortly after the founding of the republic, the Centuriate Assembly became the principal [[Roman assemblies|Roman assembly]] in which magistrates were elected, laws were passed, and trials occurred. Also around this time, the plebeians assembled into an informal plebeian Curiae Assembly, which was the original [[Plebeian Council]]. Since they were organized on the basis of the [[Curia]] (and thus by clan), they remained dependent on their Patrician patrons. In 471 BC, a law was passed due to the efforts of the Tribune Volero Publilius,<ref name="Abbott, 29">Abbott, 29</ref> which allowed the plebeians to organize by tribe, rather than by curia. Thus, the Plebeian Curiae Assembly became the Plebeian Tribal Assembly, and the plebeians became politically independent.<ref name="Abbott, 29">Abbott, 29</ref>

During the regal period, the king nominated two [[equestrians]] to serve as his assistants, and after the overthrow of the monarchy, the Consuls retained this authority. However, in 447 BC, [[Cicero]] tells us that the Equators began to be elected by a tribal assembly that was presided over by a magistrate.<ref name="Abbott, 33">Abbott, 33</ref> It seems as though this was the first instance of a joint Patricia-Plebeian Tribal Assembly, and thus was probably an enormous gain for the plebeians. While patricians were able to vote in a joint assembly, there were never very many Patricians in Rome. Thus, most of the electors were plebeians, and yet any magistrate elected by a joint assembly had jurisdiction over both plebeians and patricians. Therefore, for the first time, the plebeians seemed to have indirectly acquired authority over Patricians.<ref name="Abbott, 33">Abbott, 33</ref> Most contemporary accounts of an assembly of the Tribes refer specifically to the [[Plebeian Council]].

The distinction between the joint [[Tribal Assembly]] (composed of both Patricians and Plebeians) and the Plebeian Council (composed only of Plebeians) is not well defined in the contemporary accounts, and because of this, the very existence of a joint Tribal Assembly can only be assumed through indirect evidence.<ref name="Abbott, 33">Abbott, 33</ref> During the 5th century BC, a series of reforms were passed (the ''leges Valeria Horatio'' or the "laws of the consuls [[Lucius Valerius Poplicola Potitus|Valerius]] and [[Marcus Horatius Barbatus|Horatius]]"), which ultimately required that any law passed by the Plebeian Council have the full force of law over both plebeians and Patricians. This gave the plebeian tribunes, who presided over the Plebeian Council, a positive character for the first time. Before these laws were passed, tribunes could only interpose the sacrosanct of their person (''intercessio'') to veto acts of the Senate, assemblies, or magistrates. It was a modification to the Valerian law in 449 BC which first allowed acts of the Plebeian Council to have the full force of law over both plebeians and patricians, but eventually the final law in the series was passed (the "Shortening Law"), which removed the last check that the patricians in the Senate had over this power.

==The end of the Conflict of the Orders (367–287 BC)==

In the decades following the passage of the Licinio-Sextian law of 367 BC, a series of laws were passed which ultimately granted plebeians political equality with patricians.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Shindler|first1=Michael|title=Patrician and Plebeian Sociopolitical Dynamics in Early Rome|url=http://theapollonianrevolt.com/patricians-plebeians-early-rome/|website=The Apollonian Revolt|publisher=The Apollonian Revolt|access-date=2 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150520004912/http://theapollonianrevolt.com/patricians-plebeians-early-rome/|archive-date=20 May 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Abbott, 41">Abbott, 41</ref> The patrician era came to a complete end in 287 BC, with the passage of the Hortensian law.<ref name="Abbott, 41">Abbott, 41</ref> When the curule [[aedile|aedileship]] had been created, it had only been opened to Patricians. However, an agreement was ultimately secured between the plebeians and the patricians. One year, the curule [[aedile|aedileship]] was to be open to plebeians, and the next year, it was only to be open to patricians.<ref name="Abbott, 42-43">Abbott, 42-43</ref> Eventually, however, this agreement was abandoned and the plebeians won full admission to the curule aedileship. In addition, after the consulship had been opened to the plebeians, the plebs acquired a ''de facto'' right to hold both the [[Roman Dictator|Roman dictator]]ship and the [[Roman censor]]ship <ref name="Abbott, 37">Abbott, 37</ref> since only former consuls could hold either office. 356 BC saw the appointment of the first plebeian dictator,<ref name="Abbott, 42">Abbott, 42</ref> and in 339 BC the plebeians facilitated the passage of a law (the ''lex Publilia''), which required the election of at least one plebeian censor for each five-year term.<ref name="Abbott, 42">Abbott, 42</ref> In 337 BC, the first plebeian praetor (Q. Publilius Philo) was elected.<ref name="Abbott, 42">Abbott, 42</ref> In addition, during these years, the plebeian Tribunes and the senators grew increasingly close.<ref name="Abbott, 44">Abbott, 44</ref> The Senate realized the need to use plebeian officials to accomplish desired goals,<ref name="Abbott, 44">Abbott, 44</ref> and so to win over the tribunes, senators gave the tribunes a great deal of power, and unsurprisingly, the tribunes began to feel obligated to the Senate. As the tribunes and the senators grew closer, plebeian senators were often able to secure the tribunate for members of their own families.<ref name="Abbott, 45">Abbott, 45</ref> In time, the tribunate became a [[Cursus honorum|stepping stone]] to higher office.<ref name="Abbott, 45">Abbott, 45</ref>

During the era of the kingdom, the [[Roman King]] appointed new senators through a process called ''lectio senatus'', but after the overthrow of the kingdom, the consuls acquired this power. Around the middle of the 4th century BC, however, the Plebeian Assembly enacted the "[[Ovinian Plebiscite]]" (''plebiscitum Ovinium''),<ref name="Abbott, 46">Abbott, 46</ref> which gave the power to appoint new senators to the [[Roman Censors|Roman censors]]. It also codified a commonplace practice, which all but required the censor to appoint any newly elected magistrate to the Senate.<ref name="Abbott, 46">Abbott, 46</ref> While this was not an absolute requirement, the language in the law was so strict that the censors rarely disobeyed it. It is not known what year this law was passed, although it was probably passed between the opening of the censorship to plebeians (in 339 BC) and the first known ''lectio senatus'' by a censor (in 312 BC).<ref name="Abbott, 47">Abbott, 47</ref> By this point, plebeians were already holding a significant number of magisterial offices, and so the number of plebeian senators probably increased quickly.<ref name="Abbott, 47">Abbott, 47</ref> It was, in all likelihood, simply a matter of time before the plebeians came to dominate the Senate.

Under the new system, newly elected magistrates were awarded with automatic membership in the Senate, although it remained difficult for a plebeian from an unknown family to enter the Senate. On the rare occasion that an individual of an unknown family (''ignobilis'') was elected to high office, it was usually due to the unusual character of that individual, as was the case for both [[Gaius Marius]] and [[Cicero|Marcus Tullius Cicero]].<ref name="Abbott, 47">Abbott, 47</ref> Several factors made it difficult for individuals from unknown families to be elected to high office, in particular the very presence of a long-standing nobility, as this appealed to the deeply rooted Roman respect for the past.<ref name="Abbott, 47">Abbott, 47</ref> In addition, elections were expensive, neither senators nor magistrates were paid, and the Senate often did not reimburse magistrates for expenses associated with their official duties. Therefore, an individual usually had to be independently wealthy before seeking high office.<ref name="Abbott, 47">Abbott, 47</ref> Ultimately, a new [[Nobiles|patricio-plebeian aristocracy]] (''nobilitas'') emerged,<ref name="Abbott, 47">Abbott, 47</ref> which replaced the old patrician nobility. It was the dominance of the long-standing patrician nobility which ultimately forced the plebeians to wage their long struggle for political power. The new nobility, however, was fundamentally different from the old nobility.<ref name="Abbott, 48">Abbott, 48</ref> The old nobility existed through the force of law, because only patricians were allowed to stand for high office, and it was ultimately overthrown after those laws were changed. Now, however, the new nobility existed due to the organization of society, and as such, it could only be overthrown through a revolution.<ref name="Abbott, 48">Abbott, 48</ref>

The Conflict of the Orders was finally coming to an end, since the plebeians had achieved political equality with the patricians.<ref name="Abbott, 48">Abbott, 48</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Shindler|first1=Michael|title=Patrician and Plebeian Sociopolitical Dynamics in Early Rome|journal=The Apollonian Revolt|date=2014|url=http://theapollonianrevolt.com/patricians-plebeians-early-rome/|access-date=2 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150520004912/http://theapollonianrevolt.com/patricians-plebeians-early-rome/|archive-date=20 May 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> A small number of plebeian families had achieved the same standing that the old aristocratic Patrician families had always had, but these new plebeian aristocrats were as uninterested in the plight of the average plebeian as the old patrician aristocrats had always been.<ref name="Abbott, 48">Abbott, 48</ref> During this time period, the plebeian plight had been mitigated due to the constant state of war that Rome was in.<ref name="Abbott, 49">Abbott, 49</ref> These wars provided employment, income, and glory for the average plebeian, and the sense of patriotism that resulted from these wars also eliminated any real threat of plebeian unrest. The ''lex Publilia'', which had required the election of at least one plebeian censor every five years, contained another provision. Before this time, any bill passed by an assembly could only become a law after the patrician senators gave their approval. This approval came in the form of an ''auctoritas patrum'' ("authority of the fathers").<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Momigliano|first1=Arnaldo|last2=Cornell|first2=Tim|date=2016-03-07|title=patrum auctoritas|url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-4793|access-date=2022-02-05|website=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics|language=en|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.4793|isbn=978-0-19-938113-5}}</ref> The ''lex Publilia'' modified this process, requiring the ''auctoritas patrum'' to be passed before a law could be voted on by one of the assemblies, rather than after the law had already been voted on.<ref name="Abbott, 50">Abbott, 50</ref> It is not known why, but this modification seems to have made the ''auctoritas patrum'' irrelevant.<ref name="Abbott, 51">Abbott, 51</ref>

By 287 BC, the economic condition of the average plebeian had become poor. The problem appears to have centered around widespread indebtedness,<ref name="Abbott, 52">Abbott, 52</ref> and the plebeians quickly demanded relief. The senators, most of whom belonged to the creditor class, refused to abide by the demands of the plebeians, and the result was the final plebeian secession. The Plebeians seceded to the [[Janiculum|Janiculum Hill]], and to end the secession, a dictator named [[Quintus Hortensius (dictator)|Quintus Hortensius]] was appointed. Hortensius, a plebeian, passed the [[lex Hortensia]] which ended the requirement that an ''auctoritas patrum'' be passed before any bill could be considered by either the Plebeian Council or the Tribal Assembly.<ref name="Abbott, 52">Abbott, 52</ref> The requirement was not changed for the Centuriate Assembly. The Hortensian Law also reaffirmed the principle that an act of the Plebeian Council have the full force of law over both plebeians and patricians, which it had originally acquired as early as 449 BC.<ref name="Abbott, 51">Abbott, 51</ref> The importance of the Hortensian law was in that it removed from the patrician senators their final check over the Plebeian Council.<ref name="Abbott, 53">Abbott, 53</ref>

==Historicity==

The traditional account was long accepted as factual, but it has a number of problems and inconsistencies, and almost every element of the story is controversial today. For instance, the ''[[fasti]]'' report a number of consuls with plebeian names during the 5th century BC, when the consulate was supposedly only open to patricians, and explanations to the effect that previously patrician ''[[gens|gentes]]'' somehow became plebeians later are difficult to prove. Another point of difficulty is the apparent absence of armed revolt; as the history of the late Republic shows, similar types of grievances tended to lead to bloodshed rather quickly, yet Livy's account seems to entail debate mostly, with the occasional threat of ''secessio''. None of this is helped by our basic uncertainty as to who the ''plebs'' actually were; many of them are known to have been wealthy landowners, and the "lower class" label dates from the late Republic.<ref name="Raaflaub">Raaflaub</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2021}}

Some scholars, such as Richard E. Mitchell, have even argued that there was no conflict at all, the Romans of the late Republic having interpreted events of their distant past as if they were comparable to the class struggles of their own time. The crux of the problem is that there is no contemporaneous account of the conflict; writers such as [[Polybius]], who might have met persons whose grandparents participated in the conflict, do not mention it (which may not be surprising, since Polybius' history covered a period after the conflict), while the writers who do speak of the conflict, such as Livy or [[Cicero]], are sometimes thought to have reported fact and fable equally readily, and sometimes assume that there were no fundamental changes in Roman institutions in nearly 500 years.  However, there are numerous Roman and Greek authors who record the events which form part of the conflict of the orders, and they each rely on more ancient sources, and if the story were false it could only be because there were some great collusion between them to distort history or some deliberate fabrication of history, which seems unlikely.<ref name="Raaflaub">Raaflaub</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2021}}

==See also==
{{div col |colwidth=15em}}

* [[Roman Kingdom]]
* [[Roman Republic]]
* [[Roman Empire]]
* [[Roman Law]]
* [[Plebeian Council]]
* [[Centuria]]
* [[Curia]]
* [[Roman consul]]
* [[Praetor]]
* [[Roman censor]]
* [[Quaestor]]
* [[Aedile]]
* [[Roman Dictator]]
* [[Master of the Horse]]
* [[Senate]]
* [[Cursus honorum]]
* [[Pontifex Maximus]]
* [[Princeps senatus]]
* [[Interrex]]
* [[Procurator (Roman)|Procurator]]
* [[Acta Senatus]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Abbott, Frank Frost (1901). ''A History and Description of Roman Political Institutions''. Elibron Classics ({{ISBN|0-543-92749-0}}).
* Byrd, Robert (1995). ''The Senate of the Roman Republic''. U.S. Government Printing Office, Senate Document 103-23.
* Cicero, Marcus Tullius (1841). ''The Political Works of Marcus Tullius Cicero: Comprising his Treatise on the Commonwealth; and his Treatise on the Laws. Translated from the original, with Dissertations and Notes in Two Volumes''. By Francis Barham, Esq. London: Edmund Spettigue. Vol. 1.
* [[Andrew Lintott|Lintott, Andrew]] (1999). ''The Constitution of the Roman Republic''. Oxford University Press ({{ISBN|0-19-926108-3}}).
* Polybius (1823). ''The General History of Polybius: Translated from the Greek''. By [[James Hampton (priest)|James Hampton]]. Oxford: Printed by W. Baxter. Fifth Edition, Vol 2.
* [[Lily Ross Taylor|Taylor, Lily Ross]] (1966). ''Roman Voting Assemblies: From the Hannibalic War to the Dictatorship of Caesar''. The University of Michigan Press ({{ISBN|0-472-08125-X}}).
* [[Kurt Raaflaub]], ed. ''Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of Orders'' ([[University of California Press]], 1986) {{ISBN|0-520-05528-4}}
* [[Michael Shindler|Shindler, Michael]] (2014). ''Patrician and Plebeian Sociopolitical Dynamics in Early Rome''. The Apollonian Revolt.
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Conflict of the Orders
  |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}
{{refbegin}}
* Ihne, Wilhelm. ''Researches Into the History of the Roman Constitution''. William Pickering. 1853. 
* Johnston, Harold Whetstone. ''Orations and Letters of Cicero: With Historical Introduction, An Outline of the Roman Constitution, Notes, Vocabulary and Index''. Scott, Foresman and Company. 1891.
* Mommsen, Theodor. ''Roman Constitutional Law''. 1871-1888
* Tighe, Ambrose. ''The Development of the Roman Constitution''. D. Apple & Co. 1886.
* Von Fritz, Kurt. ''The Theory of the Mixed Constitution in Antiquity''. Columbia University Press, New York. 1975.
* ''The Histories'' by [[Polybius]]
* Cambridge Ancient History, Volumes 9–13.
* A. Cameron, ''The Later Roman Empire'', (Fontana Press, 1993).
* M. Crawford, ''The Roman Republic'', (Fontana Press, 1978).
* E. S. Gruen,  "The Last Generation of the Roman Republic" (U California Press, 1974)
* F. Millar, ''The Emperor in the Roman World'', (Duckworth, 1977, 1992).
* A. Lintott, "The Constitution of the Roman Republic" (Oxford University Press, 1999)
{{refend}}

===Primary sources===
* [http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=546&chapter=83299&layout=html&Itemid=27 Cicero's De Re Publica, Book Two]
* [http://www.fordham.edu/HALSALL/ANCIENT/polybius6.html Rome at the End of the Punic Wars: An Analysis of the Roman Government; by Polybius]

===Secondary sources===
* [http://mailer.fsu.edu/~njumonvi/montesquieu_romans.htm Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline, by Montesquieu]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080829134354/http://www.uah.edu/student_life/organizations/SAL/texts/misc/romancon.html The Roman Constitution to the Time of Cicero]
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/opinion/30harris.html?_r=1&oref=slogin What a Terrorist Incident in Ancient Rome Can Teach Us]

{{Roman Constitution}}
{{Ancient Rome topics}}

[[Category:Roman Republic]]
[[Category:Social class in ancient Rome]]