What was the reason the patricians want to prevent plebeians from holding important positions?

Answer 1

Not all patricians were opposed to this. The conservative patricians opposed it. The liberal patricians supported it. This support helped the rich plebeians to eventually gain access to all offices of state and the priesthoods, which had been exclusively patrician.

During the early republic, the patricians established themselves as a ruling class through a monopoly over the consulship and the senate. They were an aristocracy and considered themselves superior to the plebeians (commoners). They saw being in power as a privilege by birth right. Moreover, the plebeian movement started as a rebellion against the patrician-dominated state when their demands for addressing the worse aspect through which the patricians exploited poor plebeians were rejected. The patricians saw the plebeian economic grievances and demands as a threat to their profits, exploitative practices, and privilege. They also saw the rebellion as an attempt to subvert the Romans state. Eventually, with the help of the liberal patricians the rich plebeians, who were the leaders of the constantly agitating plebeian movement, were co-opted into what became a patrician-plebeian oligarchy and the rich plebeians turned their backs on the poor plebeians who had been the driving force of the plebeian movement.

Answer 2

Throughout the history of the Roman Empire, tensions existed between the patrician-citizens (wealthy Romans) and the plebeian-citizens (non-wealthy Romans). The primary reason for the general patrician effort to hold the most important governing positions was the view that plebeians were simply unable to rule well: they did not, thought many patricians, possess the necessary character nor other resources necessary to make sound ruling decisions.

Answer 3

The patricians were afraid because most of the population of Rome was plebeians and when the plebeians marched out of the city to camp at the end of the hill until the farms came to a halt. Without the plebeians, patricians feared that the army would be helpless if an enemy struck at Rome. The patricians had little choice but to compromise.

Answer 4

One reason could be that they were at opposite ends of the social Ladder, Patricians were the wealthiest among Rome, able to afford Roman Baths and Theatre, where as Plebeians were the lowest, literally poor and working class, constructing everyday buildings and objects for pittance hence maybe the friction between the two social classes?

Answer 5

The patricians and plebeians were not in continual conflict. At the beginning of the city, yes, the patricians had all the land, authority, and legislative power. After the Conflict of the Orders, which produced the laws of the Twelve Tables, the Plebeians gained their rights and relative harmony prevailed. However when Rome expanded and other people came to live in the city, the patricians and plebeians became the aristocracy because they could trace their ancestry back to the founding of the city.

Answer 6

Patricians were frightened because without plebeians patricians would be helpless if an enemy struck at rome.