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Originally law were kept secret and the proceedings of the senate were not published. This left a lot of room for abuse of the poor by the aristocracy. The plebeians wanted written and published laws and prosecution procedures so that the rules were known by everyone, restricting abuse and giving people a chance to appeal. The uppermost grievance of the poor was the abuse of defaulting debtors by the (rich)creditors who imprisoned them, tortured them, and sometimes sold them as slaves. The Law of the Twelve Tables also established court procedures which provided a degree of protection for the defaulting debtor. The law also established clear standard penalties for crimes.
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What were the two main social groups in rome?
There were seven social classes in ancient Rome. they were the patricians, plebeians, the equites, the proletariat, the freedmen, the slaves and foreigners. The last "class" the foreigners, were not Roman but many of them lived in the city and did not fit in with any Roman class.
What was the reason the patricians want to prevent plebeians from holding important positions?
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.
What rights did plebeians gain?
The plebeians had the rights of a Roman citizen. The law gave all Roman citizens the same rights. Social inequality was not based on the law. It was determined by differences in wealth and status.
Why were the plebeian unhappy when the republic was first set up?
In the early days of the Roman Republic the patricians (the aristocracy) monopolised political power by monopolising the seats of the senate, the consulship (the office of the two annually elected heads of the Republic) and the priesthoods. As a result of the 200-year conflict of the Orders between patricians and plebeians (the commoners), the rich plebeians obtained power-sharing and gained access to the consulship and the senate. They also gained access to the offices of state which were created as the Republic developed (the censorship and the praetorship) and to some of the priesthoods. The grievances of the poor plebeians were different from those of the rich ones. They were economic. They were (originally) the abuse of defaulting debtors by (rich) creditors, indebtedness and the interest rates of loans; and the shortage of land for peasant farmers. Traditionally, farmers were given plots of land which were just about enough for feeding their families. The rest of the land was public land which could be utilised for common use. However, the rich landlords expanded their estates at the expense of the public land. Therefore, the amount of land available to poor farmers became insufficient and there were demands for redistributing land to the poor.
How humanism started?
It all started in the catholic church. they didn't want people getting big ideas so they toned down the riots by preaching Humanism.
