Tuesday, March 22, 2011

How was the Struggle of the Orders influential on later Roman politics?

The Struggle of the Orders changed the way that Rome could make decisions. It was also when the Patrician class had all the power, and then the Plebeians wanted some power too. Before, the Patricians could and did make laws whenever they wanted to, but the Struggle of the Orders took away some of the power from the Patricians.The Plebeians were the common people, but the Patricians were the aristocrats and were used to being in control. The Plebeians formed an assembly, and their own government, until the Patricians agreed to the establishment of an office that would have ‘sacrosanctity’. The Plebeians demanded to have a magistrate. These magistrate positions were also called Tribunes. The Plebian Tribune had the power to veto any law that the Patricians tried to send threw. This started the whole process of Checks and Balances  After the struggle, the Plebians were able to veto any law that Patricians put forth. This gave them a large amount of power, because the Patricians could no longer do something the Plebians did not approve of. The Republic had been founded only fifteen years before this change, so it obviously did not take long for the Plebians to figure out the injustice happening. However, after the Struggle of the Orders, the Patricians still held a considerable amount of power, so they did not let the Plebians completely take away the power they had. Politics in Rome did not, for the most part, change, except that the Plebians were no longer the sole individuals with any power.


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