Week 5: Daily Blog Day 3 – Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Daily Blog Day 3 – Wednesday, March 16, 2011

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

Before you can determine how the Struggle of the Orders later influenced Roman politics, you must first understand what exactly this struggle and the orders are. The Struggle of the Orders was basically a political civil war within Rome beginning in 494 BC between two orders or groups based on your class. The more noble and aristocratic citizens in Rome were known as the partitions. The common people were then the other order or class known as the plebeians. The plebeians led a series of revelations and revolts against the partitions. This is because the partitions were the only people at this time allowed to run for a political position in an office. The plebeians then of course began to feel like it was unfair that they had no power over the rules and laws that affected them. Therefore, all of this led to the Struggle of the Orders and eventually the reform of the Roman government as the plebeians and the partitions compromised and ended the Struggle of the Orders. All of this greatly influenced later Roman politics in many ways as it was an important precedent in the Roman world. People were more willing to revolt against things they did not agree with and speak up for their rights. It most likely led to more civil wars and public revolts in the future. Also, the Struggle of the Orders may have also showed how political disagreements can end well with compromises and that in the future things could possibly be handled in this more civilized manner. I hope you better understand about the Struggle of the Orders and how it influenced later Roman politics.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_the_Orders  and also our class notes