The Struggle Of The Orders In Ancient Rome

The Struggle of the Orders was a social conflict between the two social classes of ancient Rome, comprised of the plebians (common people) and the patricians (aristocracy). Plebians were often treated unequally in comparison to the patricians, who owned most of the wealth of the Republic, were the only ones able to hold high office, and kept plebians out of their marriages. In order to speak out against the discrimination and force concessions from the patricians, the plebians performed a boycott by walking out of Rome and refusing to serve in the army in 494 B.C.E. The boycott was successful, and the patricians decided to allow intermarriage between the two classes, gave formal recognition to the plebians' right to elect their own officials