The Rise Of The Roman Republic
Storyboard Text
- The next king will be the one who kisses their mother first
- You are worse than us, we will make you do lower work, be treated unfairly, have way less power, unequal rights and stay like this forever!
- Plebeian perspective in the Rise of the Roman Republic
- We will make you have no part in the government at all and we will use the laws only to our benefits, we will run the government and have all the power, not you.
- Etruscan kings from Northern Italy ruled early Rome between 616 and 509 BCE. In 509 BCE, us Romans overthrew the Etruscans and cretaed a republic. We told an interesting story about it, one day 2 Etruscan princesses and 1 Roman named Lucius Junius Brutus went to the oracle to ask who will be next king. The oracle answered "The next king will be the first to kiss his mother". As a result, the Roman Lucius Junius Brutus fake fell and kissed the earth, the mother of all living things. Back in Rome Brutus led a revolt to get rid of the Etruscan kings, and eventually, he succeeded and he became one of the first leaders in the new republic.
- Now us Romans were free to govern ourselves, but not all of us Romans were equal under this new system . Power in the start of the new republic belonged to rich men known as the Patricians which was unfair. While the other majority of Romans in who were us, were not rich, and we were called the Plebeians and had no voice in the government and treated us worse. We could also not be priests or government officials. The Patricians were wealthy land owners which advised the Etruscan king back when he was in power, and the Patricians controlled the most valuable land. The Patricians also held important military and religious offices. Us Plebeians made up 95 percent of Rome's population. We were mostly peasents, laborers, craftspeople, and shopkeepers and were always trated worse than the Patricians. Even though we had all of these unfair treatments, we were still forced to serve in the army.
- The Patricians placed most of the power in the hands of the senate, which was a group of 300 Patricians elected by Patricians. The senators served for life and also appointed other government officials. Two elected leaders, called consuls, shared command of the army. The senate was supposed to advise the consuls and their decisions were considered law. The creation of the republic gave Rome a more democratic form of government in which only Patricians could participate in. Us Plebeians had to obey the Patricians even though we were treated terribly and laws were not written down so the Patricians would often chnage them to benefit themselves, which resulted in only a small group of families holding all the power of Rome which is extremely disproportional and unbalanced.
- Us Plebeians would soon unite and fight for what we wanted because of the inequality taking action. We demanded more politicl rights and the conflict between us Plebeians and the Patricians was known as the conflict of orders, a conflict between 2 social classes. Us Plebeians started standing up for ourselves and resenting the fact we had to go to the army, so the Patricians had to go to the army instead. Our battle took a dramatic turn in 494 BCE, Rome was a city of 20 to 40 thousand people in which most was us Plebeians. So being angry over our lack of power we camped on a nearby hill until the Patricians met our demands. Work in the city and farms stopped which put Rome in a crisis. Without us Plebeians, the Patricians feared that our army would grow weak and helpless. There would be no soldiers to fight if an enemy struck Rome.
- With the city quickly falling apart, the Patricians had little choice but to compromise. Us Plebeians made a major change which allowed us to elect officials called the Tribunes Of Plebs which represented us Plebeians in the senate and the consuls. Later, tribuned gained the power to veto or overrule actions by the senate and other government officials and the number of tribunes increased from 2 to 10. Us Plebeians could also elect a lawmaking body, the Council Of Plebs which was only for us Plebeians. Even though we gained some important rights we still had less than the Patricians. So, over the next 200 years we conducted a series of protest to gradually win political equaliy. First we demanded laws to be written down or transcribed so Patricians couldnt change them, Around 451 BCE the Patricians agreed and laws were written down on tablets called The Twelve Tables. Next in 367 BCE, a law stated that one of the 2 consuls must be a Plebeian. Former consuls held seats in senate so this allowed us Plebeians to become senators. Finally in 287 BCE, us Plebeians had earned the right to pass laws for all Romans. So after 200 years of determination, conflict and struggle, us Plebeians had finally won the fight for equality and sucessfully stood up for what is right.
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