PLEBEIANS (Lat. plebs. froni the same root as Lat. impleo, to fill: And Gr. plethos, multitude), the common people of Rome; one of the two elements of which the Roman nation consisted. Their origin, as a separate class, is to be traced partly to natural, and partly to artificial causes. The foundation of Rome, probably as a frontier-emporium of Latin traffic (according to Mommsen's suggestion), would bring about the place a number of inferior employees, clients, or hangers-on, of the enterprising commercial agriculturists who laid the primitive basis of the material and Moral prosperity of the city. These hangers on were the original plebeians, or non-burgesses of Rome, whose numbers were constantly increased by the subjugation of the surrounding cities and states. Thus; tradition states that, on the capture of Alba, while the most distinguished citizens of that town were received among the Roman patricians, the greater part of the inhabitants, likewise transferred to Rome, were kept in submission to the populus or patricians of Rome—in other words, swelled the, ranks of the plebeians. Similar transfers of some of the inhabitants of conquered towns are assigned to the reign of Ancus :Martins. The order of plebeians thus gradually formed soon exceeded the patricians in numbers, wrtly inhabiting Rome, and partly the adjoining country. Though citizens, they were neither comprehended in the three tribes, nor in the entire, nor in the patrician genies, and were therefore excluded from the comitia, the senate, and all the civil and priestly offices of The state. They could not intermarry with the patricians.
The first step (according to traditionary belief) towards breaking down the barrier between the two classes was the admission, under Tarquinius Priscus, of some of the more considerable plebeian families intothe three tribes. Servius Tullius divided the part of the city and the adiacent country which was inhabited by plebeians, into regions or local tribes, assigning land to those plebeians who were yet without it. The plebeian
tribes, with tribunes at their head, formed an organization similar to that of the patri cians. The same king further extended the rights of the plebeians by dividing the whole body of citizens, patrician and plebeian, into five classes, according to their wealth, and. forming a great national assembly called the comitia centuriata, in which the plebeians met the patricians on a footing of equality; but the patricians continued to be alone eligible to the senate, the highest magistracy, and the priestly offices. These newly acquired privileges were lost in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, but restored on the establish ment of the republic. Sean afterwards, the vacancies which had occurred in the senate during the reign of the last king, were filled up by the most distinguished of the plebeian equites, and the plebeians acquired a variety of new privileges by the laws of Valcrius Publicola. The encroachments on those privileges on the part of the patri cians, began the long-continued struggle between the two orders, which eventually led to the plebeians gaining access to all thecivil and religious offices, acquiring for their decrees (plebiscite) the force of law. Hortensian law (286 Ito.), the two hostile classes were at last amalgamated in one general body of Roman citizens with equal rights. Henceforth, the term populus is sometimes applied to the plebeians alone, some times to the whole body of citizens assembled in the comitia centuriata or tribute, and plebs is occasionally used in a loose way for the multitude or populace, in opposition the senatorial party. See PATRICIAN.