"Rome Wasn't Built in a Day"- The Real Founding of Rome

“Rome wasn’t built in a Day” 
(Great Things take time)

 - The Real Founding of Rome -

  By Suryatej Vakkalanka

During 616 and 509 B.C., Rome was a monarchy, ruled by kings. Apart from that, there were two classes of people: the patricians, who were wealthy landowners, and the plebeians, who were poor merchants. Further described, patricians originated from the Latin word ‘patres’, which meant father, referring to the fact that they chose the “fathers” of the city. They made up only five percent of the population of Rome, and had much of the say in government. Plebeians, on the other hand, originated from the Latin word ‘plebs’, which means many, and it also supported the fact that they made up for 95 percent of the population. In addition, plebeians had no say in government because they were laborers, shopkeepers, and artisans. Overtime, patricians resented the royal family’s rule, and finally  overthrew the (now cruel) ‘Tarquin Family’, including ‘Tarquinius Superbus’. After that, the patricians set up a republic for the people of Rome.

The republic of Rome was supposed to “serve the people”, and it did: to the patricians. After the republic was set, the patricians created a senate and two consuls as their leaders, who represented their own interests in court. On the contrary, nothing changed for the plebeians, as they still (forcefully) served in the army, and had to pay ‘heavy taxes’. More importantly, “...since laws were not written down anymore, patricians often changed and interpreted them to their own interests”. As a result, the ‘Conflict of the Orders’ began, which lasted from 494 to 287 B.C..   This conflict involved plebeians demanding more rights to themselves. In 494 B.C., the plebeians had had their last straw, and refused to serve in the military army unless their demands were met. Livy, an ancient Roman historian, wrote “There was great panic in the city...people left in the city...uncertain whether they should...stay or...depart”. “What were to be the consequences...if, in the meantime, any foreign war should break out?”

           Because the patricians didn’t want to take the risk of being unprotected in war, they made some exceptions for the plebeians. First off, the plebeians were now allowed to have 10 officials, called the ‘Tribunes of the Plebs’, who represented the “...plebeian interests to the Senate”. Furthermore, they also had the ‘Council of the Plebs’. Plebeians also demanded that laws be written down, so patricians wouldn’t change them. The result were laws inscribed on 12 wooden tablets, set in the public, which became known as ‘The Twelve Tables’. Plebeians still wanted power in the government, because compared to the patricians, they were weak. In 367 B.C., a law passed that one of the two consuls has to be a plebeian, and finally, in 287 B.C., the Roman democracy became equal when the Citizens’ Assemblies (all male adult Roman citizens and Council of Plebs) were allowed to pass laws that “...affected the entire society, instead of just the plebeians.”

As plebeians and patricians became more equal, Rome slowly turned into a true democracy. The interests of both classes came to be represented in the government, and action’s of some classes were balanced by others. Even the U.S. got its idea of ‘democracy’ from the Greeks and the Romans, from its senate of the 300, to electing consuls (or presidents, in this case).