The ancient Roman society (societas hominum) was structured according to a strictly defined hierarchy, where each person had a position that determined their rights and duties. It’s appropriate to refer to social classes, as the divisions were not strictly socio-economic but were based on the rights or status of individuals or groups. An individual’s place was defined by their role in the hierarchy of institutions and laws, as well as by their wealth and, more significantly, by their origin. It was an association based on law and common interest.
Roman society established the census, a kind of civil status, as early as the 6th century BC. During the Roman monarchy, there were two main classes: the nobles and the people (populus), in addition to slaves and non-citizens. After the establishment of the Republic, Roman society defined itself as an unyieldingly stratified society of orders (ordines). While there were possibilities for social advancement, the majority of the population remained very poor. For nearly a millennium, Rome would evolve, and its social structures would change, giving rise to medieval society.
Status
To describe a person’s position in the Roman system, three different statuses were distinguished: Is the person free or a slave? Is the person the head of a family? Or is the person a citizen?
Status libertatis
The social and legal status of slaves in ancient Rome varied over time. The archaic law (ius civile Quiritium) was patriarchal; the slave lived under the same conditions as their master and family. After the influx of slaves caused by the territorial expansion of the 3rd century BC, the trade and exploitation of slaves became harsher; the slave was reduced to a mere possession (servi pro nullis habentur).
Freedmen had a specific intermediate status: they enjoyed civil and political rights associated with citizenship, except for the right to be elected as a magistrate. However, their sons became full-fledged citizens.
Men born free (ingenui) could then be:
- Foreigners:
- Peregrins (peregrini), free men, citizens in their community (civitas), but foreigners to the Romans, and subject to capitation. The ius gentium (law of nations) applied to them rather than the ius civile, reserved for citizens.
- Citizens (cives)
- External barbarians
- Deditices: peregrins belonging to a tribe conquered or revolted against Rome.
- Latin citizens (Latini) from 338 BC, with inferior rights until the edict of Caracalla in 212, the year of the universalization of Roman citizenship.
- Roman citizens
Status civitatis
According to Roman law (ius civile), only Roman citizens had full civil and political rights. These statuses were created and modified over time (see the historical part of this article for more details).
The citizen who could be one by right is a Roman citizen and could be part of:
- Nobility after the Lex Hortensia in 287 BC, of patrician or plebeian origin, a family with a consul among their ancestors.
- Patricians replaced by the Patrices by Constantine I.
- Knights of the equestrian order, a class of military and merchants, their membership defined by wealth (cens). The equites formed the class of military-magistrates and wealthy merchants.
- Senator of the senatorial order, their number was fixed and not dependent solely on the census. The senatores formed the class of wealthy landowners.
- Decurions and the decurional order under the empire.
- Plebeians, of whom the proletarii were members of the working class.
The Latin citizen was only a plebeian.
Status familiae
The status familiae referred to the status of women and individuals within the family. The Patres familias held complete authority in the family (patria potestas), and everyone was subject to them based on ‘adgnatio’ (kinship only on the father’s side). The alieni iuris (individuals entirely under authority) and the sui iuris (autonomous individuals and those who could claim the role of pater familias) were distinguished. Sons of the family, Filius familias, had the ius suffragii and the ius honorum, but this right remained limited to the patriarch’s will.
Other Distinctions
The Honestiores lived in the Domus, while the Humiliores resided in the Insulae. The distinction between Honestiores and Humiliores emerged during the Empire.
Historiography
In the absence of written documents, sources from the monarchical period are mainly reliant on tradition, thus being fragmentary and subject to caution. The only objective sources come from archaeology. The societas hominum of the Roman Republic has been described by numerous ancient authors for over half a millennium as an association based on law and common interest.
Other terms, like pactus or concordia, illustrate why the concepts of law and division were fundamental and at the core of Roman politics for ancient authors. These authors, mostly of affluent origin, did not necessarily depict the real society but rather how they perceived it and how they wished to promote it. Information about the lives of the majority, i.e., the peasants representing 95% of the population, is derived from indirect sources or archaeological data. Cato the Elder, later Cicero, Appian, and Livy, in different records, describe the era of crises.
History of Social Groups in Ancient Rome
Birth of the Patriciate
Contrary to what ancient sources tell us, there was originally no division between plebeians and patricians but rather a division based on clientelism that was present throughout Italy and also in the Gaulish world. The civilization was pastoral. The curiae formed small village assemblies based on the hills of Rome, as elsewhere in Italy.
These assemblies began to unite in the 9th century BC–8th century BC, with the gentiles serving as their representatives. From the 8th century BC, entire Italy underwent a transformation: the Greeks established colonies, the Etruscans expanded their kingdom southward, trade intensified, agriculture transformed, numerous cities emerged, and village communities tended to regress.
The ancients would date the birth of Rome to around 750 BC, at the crossroads of new trade routes. An assembly of elders (senes) (mature men) and Patres, with authority over their family members but also over as many clients as possible, governed. The Patres appointed a king (rex), temporarily endowed with power during the Interregnum (this practice continued even under the Republic, between consul elections). The auspices remained in the hands of the patres.
The concept of patrician, those who descended from the patres, must have formed at this time, rising above the Quirites, thus forming a nobility. Clientelism allowed these patricians, the gentes (principes or hegemones according to the authors), to organize military forces and carry out raids against external enemies. And finally, throughout Italy, the kings (reges) inherited their positions, while the principes, through the absorption of the defeated, formed ever larger clientèles. The Comitia Curiata, an assembly dominated by clientelism, validated the proposals of the kings.
Birth of the Plebeians
In the 7th century BC in Rome, King Tullus Hostilius established the curiae novae, not based on toponymic or ethnic origins but relying on the gentiles. By the 6th century BC, Rome had become the largest city in Italy. The most powerful armies were organized into phalanxes of hoplites, heavily and uniformly armed and protected foot soldiers.
Cavalry, particularly chariots, the prerogative of the gentiles, was marginalized by this type of military formation. Moreover, these same gentiles were no longer able to field, and especially equip, a sufficient number of hoplites to contend with Etruscan cities relying on a populous (Etruscan: demos) citizenry. Rome was then conquered by the Etruscans, who endowed the city with numerous infrastructures, temples, ports, public buildings, and water supply systems. Thousands of foreigners flocked to settle in Rome.
To resist external invasions, the Etruscan kings of Rome sought to create their own army of hoplites. They integrated newcomers not subject to exclusive client-patron ties and included men for whom this link was loosened. These men then united in sodalities through fides to defend the city. This relationship was fundamental. Tombstone inscriptions from this period indicate significant geographical and social mobility throughout Italy, different from the previous situation.
Servius Tullius, the first non-elected king and of servile origin, as his name suggests, transformed the army and consequently the role of each individual within the city. He thus changed the foundation of Roman society. Since the equipment level of a hoplite depended on his wealth, to determine the number and type of available fighters, a census was created, and the Comitia Centuriata and Tribes took on this task. Servius Tullius even went as far as distributing the ager publicus, marking the first agrarian reform.”
The army served as both a political and military force. The political influence of individuals remained proportionate to their property, specifically their wealth. The following categories were identified:
- The juniores (under 46 years old) and the seniores (over 46 years old) formed the centuria class in groups of 100 men. However, the patricians, organized into six equestrian centuries, increased to 18 and retained political prominence.
- The infraclass, composed of the poorest, or proletarii, engaged in certain activities, considered inferior for religious reasons. Pottery and bronze work were reserved for this population.
On the other hand, Etruscan nobles, the minores gentium, were integrated into the patrician class, allowing the Etruscan king to have greater influence in the Senate. The rule of Etruscan kings also made the Romans aware of the concept of civic bodies beyond the exclusive and localized control of the aristocracy. Additionally, the religious relationships underlying the client-patron relationship weakened, transforming the worship of ancestors into the worship of heroes.
The populus became aware that it constituted the plebeian class, and institutions recognized its existence and subordinate function. The population steadily increased thereafter, reaching 80,000 citizens (cives) under Servius, 130,000 in 508 BC, and 157,000 in 498 BC. After the fall of the Roman monarchy in 509 BC, an oligarchy formed, and patrician magistrates succeeded the kings. According to some sources, the consulship was not a Latin institution.
After the monarchy’s fall, the common practice was to establish a single magistrate with immense power but for a limited duration. Even today, historians are uncertain about the origin of the idea of sharing power equally between two consuls for a brief period. The Roman concept that gave rise to the creation of the Roman Republic appears to be profoundly original.
Elimination of Ethnic Character
The institutions of the Roman Republic were organized as we know them through stages spanning several generations, driven by the antagonism between the patricians and the plebeians:
- In 494 BC, refusing military service and struggling for their sustenance as well as their rights and freedom (abolition of nexum), the plebeians threatened to secede and establish a rival city to Rome if they did not acquire new political rights. The patricians conceded two new magistracies to them, the tribunes of the plebs and the plebeian aediles, elected by the consilium plebis and then by the comitia tributa, tasked with representing them and defending their interests. However, the tribunes did not have the same powers as the consuls but had the right of veto.
- In 486 BC, the list of consular Fasti was closed to non-patricians. This period, known as the struggle of the orders, describes the civic integration period until the democratic laws of the 300s BC amid agrarian reform, political revolts, and external threats. In 338 BC, following the Latin Wars, a sub-citizenship was granted to the Latins.
- Starting in 480 BC, an economic crisis allowed the gentile class to exclusively occupy positions of magistracy and priesthood. In 451 BC, the plebeians demanded that the laws applied by the praetors be written and published, instead of being at the discretion of the praetors. A college of former magistrates, the decemviri, drafted and engraved the Law of the Twelve Tables, applicable to all, whether patricians or plebeians.
- In 444 BC, the plebeians gained access to the supreme magistracy, which the patricians transformed into a military tribunate with consular powers. Moreover, the patricians reserved a new magistracy, the censor, and the functions of quaestors. In 367 BC, the military tribunes with consular power, Sextius Lateranus and Licinius Stolo, reinstated the consulship, with parity between a patrician consul and a plebeian consul. However, the consul’s powers were limited and fully exercised only outside of Rome.
The new tribes formed on the newly acquired lands by Rome were subject to the whims of the patrician magistrates. The nature of patronage changed as men who benefited from the redistributions of land taken from the enemy became clients out of gratitude to the magistrates responsible for distributing the public land (ager publicus). Unlike in the past, these lands were no longer grouped by gentile and eventually became the rightful property of the occupants.
The former small landowners and the urban populace (populus) bore the brunt of the war effort, primarily without reaping the benefits. Many of them fell into poverty and were under the threat of nexum, a guarantee made by a creditor to a debtor in ancient Roman times. Wealthy plebeians gained the status of patricians, and some patricians became involved in economic activities typical of the plebeians. Crucially, laws were codified in writing, and both plebeian and patrician magistrates applied them in a less arbitrary manner.
The plebeian-patrician opposition likely represents a conflict between an ancient aristocracy and wealthy plebeians, who, along with the nobiles and the Optimates, formed a new aristocracy pro bono. These affluent plebeians could be native Romans, liberated individuals who had become wealthy, but especially rich allied families or even those from conquered lands. Nexum disappeared, patricians lost their privileges, but a new form of clientele emerged, much less dependent on their patrons. Citizenship in the city-state was no longer determined by birth but rather by wealth.
Roman Imperialism
The 2nd century BC was relatively peaceful and marked the foundation of 22 Roman colonies known as Latins, Latin municipalities, and the consolidation of Italy through subjugation. With conquests, the organization of taxation on subjected populations expanded the scope of censuses. The privileged classes with access to magistracy accumulated great wealth. Due to the Punic Wars, the state itself was completely bankrupt.
Slavery, which was limited and patriarchal before the 3rd century BC, underwent significant changes, with slaves comprising 15 to 20% of the population in the 2nd century BC. Mainly found in rural areas within Latifundia, slaves had no rights. There was no shortage of slaves, as the conquered were systematically enslaved.
While the bonds of patronage and mutual interests of the nobility quickly covered the entire Italy, the soldier-farmer, a small landowner with a fairer redistribution of the ager, integrated politically, became the backbone of the republic. However, the Punic Wars, by distancing these farmers from their lands for extended periods and causing significant human (6% of the population) and financial losses through systematic plunder, would undermine this model.
On the one hand, citizenship took on various statuses depending on how areas were conquered or absorbed. Rome became dependent, and notably, foreign troops made up more than half of its army. Unfavorable relations with non-Latin populations, and even with Latin populations in relation to the Roman population, fueled additional tensions. The defection of many regions during the Second Punic War illustrates this.
In 219/218 BC, through a plebiscite and against the Senate’s opinion, senators and knights divided economic resources to try to encourage the wealthiest (senators) to pursue political or military careers and not monopolize economic resources and clientele. According to Lex Claudia, senators officially lost the right to engage in trade. Around 129 BC, a young nobiles had to decide whether to follow the career of honors (cursus honorum) and accept the public horse or become a senator if they could afford it. This law, in fact, established the existence of the equestrian order, which would only become an official order under Augustus.
Era of Crises
At the end of the Second Punic War, a brewing crisis erupted. The decimated Senate (80 out of 300 dead) was reconstituted with individuals more concerned about increasing their wealth and less concerned about the public interest; they confiscated and occupied the ager publicus. Property limitations of 500 iugeras were no longer respected. Small landowner-farmer-soldiers, whose lands were neglected due to the war, found themselves ruined, especially since they could no longer use public lands for their livestock.
The wealthiest classes bought the lands of the ruined farmers, thus increasing the size of their properties, which specialized in wine and olive production. Gradually, consulships and other magistracies passed from hand to hand, repeating the political closure observed around 480 BC. In 129 BC, the Senate increased from 300 to 900 members, with new members coming from the equestrian order, diluting the power of the old families and breaking the client ties of these new senators with the old patrician families. The two orders did not reconcile, as their financial interests were too different. Some knights did not hesitate to denounce the incompetence or malpractices of certain senators, leading to the “discord of orders.”
On the one hand, the impoverished residents of Rome no longer desired to emigrate and become peasants on the outskirts of the empire. The agrarian reform, supported by the knights but rejected by the senators, along with related measures, was abandoned. Economic refugees swelled the urban population. The economic situation of the plebeians also worsened (due to servile wars). The situation of slaves improved slightly following these revolts toward the 1st century BC. The status of Latins and other Italians as second-class citizens led to their rebellion, known as the Social War. In 89 BC, Italians gained Latin citizenship, increasing the civic body from 436,000 men in 86 BC to 910,000 in 70 BC. The ensuing political upheaval resulted in coups, plebiscites, and conflicts between the Optimates and Populares.
A lengthy and gradual evolution of the Roman army led to a new form of clientelism, with soldiers favoring their general, who looked after their interests. In the event of a victory, the rewards became substantial. Upon demobilization, they were granted citizenship and received a plot of land. This policy prompted a massive relocation of Italians, the main recruits of the army, who were enticed by the prospect of enrichment. This approach drove the Romans to conquer the “known world.” The influx of slaves compensated for the loss of free labor. Rome’s population grew from 200,000 in 200 BC to 400,000 in the 2nd century BC and over 750,000 by the end of the 1st century BC, with rural exodus reflecting the struggles of the poorest.
The Rise of the Emperors
The ancient institutions gradually lost credibility among the Romans, especially the provincials for various reasons. Corruption was evident, and vote-buying distorted the elections. Key generals like Sylla, Marius, Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Pompey, followed by Augustus, Lepidus, and Mark Antony, relying on numerous clients and controlling the resources of the provinces, engaged in power struggles during the civil wars. The wealthiest senators were decimated by the triumviral proscription.
Julius Caesar, originally a ruined patrician populist, was the first to resort to massive manumission to garner the support of the people. Although they lost direct power over the Republic’s decisions, the people retained influence through the generals they backed. The affluent, due to the economic and political security established, remained loyal to the emperor’s personalized power. Augustus succeeded in uniting the masses and elites while maintaining institutions emptied of their political counterbalance. He implemented legislative measures to stabilize the position of the wealthiest and provide genuine opportunities for advancement to the deserving (even theoretically allowing a slave to become emperor through restitutio natalium). He restored splendor to the senatorial and equestrian orders.
A new order of small provincial officials emerged, known as the decurional order. The augustal order was intended for wealthy freedmen, just below a dignitas level compared to the previous one. Augustus turned the men of the Empire into his clients, replacing the worship of Lares, the ancestors’ cult, with that of the augusti Lares, the emperor’s cult. Traditional patrons became intermediary patrons, and the emperor thus became the principal benefactor, leading to Imperial largesses, annona, Congiaire etc. In 38, Caligula made the senatorial status hereditary, while that of the knights remained based on property assessment. The rupture between the senatorial and equestrian orders was final.
In 48, Claudius I (according to Tacitus) allowed municipal notables to enter the Senate. In the 2nd century, senatorial dignity was extended to the entire family. Knights, often skilled, were entrusted with military and administrative functions without being constrained by the cursus honorum. Understanding how they could take advantage of the situation, senators, from Trajan onward, more competently fulfilled their roles as magistrates. However, it is undeniable that from the 3rd century onwards, senators lost their influence, with military knights proving to be better leaders than senators. Knights who began their careers as tenants of the Treasury were also better administrators. Members of the decurional order, aligned with the interests of the empire, often opposed the interests of the humiliores.
Social Closure
From the 3rd century onwards, the legal and socio-economic gap between honestiores and humiliores widened, and segregation became more rigid. In the first group, we find the three orders (senatorial, equestrian, and decurional), as well as the clergy and certain professions requiring funds. Social mobility was only allowed for a few military knights and jurists due to the militarization of the state. In the 4th century, statuses became strictly hereditary. Under Constantine, the equestrian order was absorbed by the senatorial order, creating a single nobility: the Patricians. The less fortunate decurions, burdened with taxes for the state and the church, became impoverished and turned into humiliores. The humiliores were regulated by professional corporations in the service of the emperor. Roman society had transformed into a monarchical society, somewhat comparable to that of the Middle Ages.
Women in Rome
The Roman custom originally bestowed the same status upon women as that of children: they were subject to the head of the family (pater familias in Latin, sometimes in a single word, paterfamilias), whether it be the father or husband, in the same way as a child. They were destined to be wives and mothers. This framework was, in fact, religious. To deviate from this framework, such as by committing adultery, was to rebel against the household gods. Once widowed or divorced, the woman returned to the father’s home, always to honor the household gods. In the event that the woman had to or chose to remain alone, she was no longer dependent on the household gods and could therefore do the same things as a free man.
Among the wealthier class, marriage was generally arranged for social and economic reasons. Girls were married at a very young age, between 12 and 14 years old. The husband, expected to take care of his wife, was generally slightly older and of equal or higher social status than the wife. At marriage, they did not change their gentile name. In public, Roman women tried to embody beauty and dignity. Monogamy was the rule.
Some girls were destined to become Vestals. They were chosen for this role at the age of 2 [citation needed]. According to a tradition that the Romans traced back to the abduction of the Sabines, patrician women were exempted from all domestic or agricultural work, except for spinning wool and raising children.
Children in Rome
Romans, in all social classes, had many children. The status of children was, of course, different from their current status. The child received a name only after 8 days if it was a boy and 9 days if it was a girl. At the birth of a child, the father had the right of life and death over the newborn. The child had to be presented to the father, or one had to wait for his return if he was absent. The child was placed before the father. If he picked it up, the father recognized and judged it valid; if the child’s sex suited him, the child would live. If he left it on the ground, it was either killed or exposed, where death or slavery awaited.
Until 7 years old, the little ones were in the stage of infancy. Here, they did not yet know how to reason. From the age of 7, the child was no longer a toddler and entered pueritia. Here, he could have legal power. He wore a light toga bordered with a purple stripe, reminiscent of that of the consuls. This garment showed that the boy’s goal was to become a citizen. He also wore a bulla, a small capsule containing protective amulets worn around the neck. Between 15 and 17 years old, the child became a legal adult. He changed his toga, wearing a simple white toga and no longer wore the bulla. If his father was still alive, he was under his patria potestas.
Otherwise, he was sui juris. The son faced a difficult situation compared to his father. He depended on the goodwill of the head of the family, the pater familias. However, his autonomy increased over time. By the end of the republic, he could incur debts without involving his father. His military service played a significant role in his emancipation. The loot belonged solely to the son.
From Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, sons could directly inherit from their mothers when they possessed separate property. Upon the death of the father, the sons became heads of the family. The eldest son had a predominance of status but no authority. A household without sons could adopt one. Adoption was a widespread practice. Considering education important, all social classes in urban areas sent their children to school, and the wealthier ones had tutors.
The Slaves in Rome
The slave is designated as an Instrumentum vocale, meaning an instrument endowed with speech. The right of ownership is exercised over the slave as it is categorized as property. Thus, a slave can belong to a city or a private individual, and it may have multiple owners. They could be beaten, and the right to life and death rested with their masters. The child of a slave belonged to the master. War served as the primary means of acquiring slaves, with the most valuable ones coming from the East and the Greeks. Slave markets were prevalent.
The condition of slaves was harsh. They were utilized for arduous and perilous tasks, aiming to extract the maximum productivity from them. Slaves working in mines, for instance, endured abominable living conditions with a significantly reduced life expectancy. Laws aimed to mitigate the treatment of slaves. Under Tibere, masters lost the right to send their slaves to the beasts.
Claude established that abandoned slaves could be considered freed. Jurists prohibited punishment without reason, and the punishment had to be proportional to the offense. Everyone had a slave, from legionaries to the most powerful Romans who could own a thousand. However, owning many slaves posed the risk of slave revolts. To punish the rebels, crucifixion was a common practice.