The contest between the Patricians and Plebeians held Rome for ages between the cruel alternations of despotism and anarchy, which had no variety but war.
The Patricians, alarmed, sent several of their number to persuade the Plebeians to return.
The long struggle between the Patricians and Plebeians was thus brought to a virtual close.
The means by which Servius gave the Plebeians a share in the government was by establishing a new Popular Assembly, in which Patricians and Plebeians alike voted.
The Plebeians now returned to the city, and elected, for the first time, ten Tribunes instead of five, a number which remained unchanged down to the latest times.
The Patricians and Plebeians formed two distinct orders in the state.
Men, women, and children were involved in a general massacre; nobles and plebeians suffered under a common fate.
In one word, the Patricians were a ruling and the Plebeians a subject class.
That the Plebiscita, or resolutions passed by the Plebeians in the Comitia Tributa, should have the force of laws, and should be binding alike upon Patricians and Plebeians.
The Plebeians had to complain not only of political, but also of private wrongs.
We have seen how, after a long struggle, the Plebeians acquired complete political equality with the Patricians.
But, though the Plebeians failed in obtaining this object, they nevertheless made steady progress in gaining for themselves a more important position in the city.
This inflamed him with anger; and accordingly, when the city was suffering from famine, and a present of corn came from Sicily, Coriolanus advised the Senate not to distribute it among the Plebeians unless they gave up their Tribunes.
Plebeians formerly got into the army by obtaining the subscription of four men of noble birth, attesting their patrician descent; and such certificates, however false, could always be obtained for a small sum.
The plebeians have got your fellow tribune And hale him up and down; all swearing if The Roman ladies bring not comfort home They'll give him death by inches.
Ay, to devour him, as the hungry plebeians would the noble Marcius.
A numerous assembly of nobles and plebeians was invited to this political lecture, and a convenient theatre was erected for their reception.
The question touching Marcellus's command was debated in the Flaminian circus, in the presence of an immense concourse of plebeians and persons of every rank.
The bulla came originally from Etruria,[1] and for a long time the children of patricians only were allowed to wear those of gold, the plebeians contenting themselves with an imitation made of leather, hung on a leathern thong.
The former played an important part under the Kings, and especially in the struggles between the patricians and plebeians in the early days of the Republic, but had practically disappeared by the time of Cicero.
While the Servian constitution made the plebeians citizens and thereby legalized their forms of marriage, it did not give them the right of intermarriage with the patricians.
With the plebeians the cognomen was not so common, perhaps its possession was the exception.
Chiefs only may paint in varied colors, plebeians being restricted to one.
Have you the faintest notion of what it means to keep company with three plebeians and lead a useful vegetable existence, and from morning till evening steadfastly practise dutifulness and uprightness?
They considered theplebeians as a wild beast, whom it behoved them to let loose upon their neighbours, for fear they should devour their masters.
The patricians and plebeians in Rome were perpetually at variance, and there was no intermediate power to reconcile them.
Nevertheless, there was no outward resistance; the aristocracy of the towns limited itself to opposing the election of plebeians and to hindering their action in office.
The contest in Valencia was a social conflict from the start, of plebeians against the lords, whereas the Castilian conflict was fundamentally political.
By the end of the period the victory of the plebeians was clear, and the ties which bound them to the lords were loosened.
The men of the families which first ruled Rome were called patricians or nobles, while the rest were plebeians or common people.
The richer plebeians were also gradually admitted to all the offices of the Roman republic, and so became nobles themselves.
When disputes arose between patricians and plebeians about property, the plebeians believed the patricians changed the laws in order to gain an advantage over their poorer neighbors.
The story is told that twice the plebeianswithdrew from the city and refused to return until their wrongs were removed.
Another officer was the tribune, chosen in the beginning by the plebeians to protect them against the patricians.
But though plebeians could now sit in the College of Aldermen, and the people could now take part in municipal elections, it is worthy of note that the new magistrates were almost all of them members of the old ruling class.
The plebeians were for a moment cowed, but their spirit was not crushed.
Thus united they were irresistible, and the plebeians hurled themselves in vain against the bedrock of their omnipotence.
For these or for some other reasons the local aristocracy at Brussels was less overbearing than at Louvain, class distinctions were less sharply defined, and the plebeians were treated with more consideration.
It was the time when the famous 'White Hoods' of Ghent were disporting themselves in Flanders, and the revolutionists of Louvain, patricians and plebeians alike, adopted their headgear.
Presently in their turn they denounced him: he was hatching a plot with the plebeiansto overthrow their power.
Of course we went to see the venerable relic of the ancient glory of Venice, with its pavements worn and broken by the passing feet of a thousand years of plebeians and patricians--The Cathedral of St. Mark.
If the truth were known, it would doubtless appear that rich plebeians grew too prominent in their affectation of patrician show on the Grand Canal, and required a wholesome snubbing.
The plebeians and the merchants were all on his side.
Thus the sympathies of the plebeians and the selfishness of the rich patricians prevented the republic from asserting itself.
Now, in the three Chambers which the three orders were thenceforward to form, there were two in which the plebeians predominated.
The plebeians in the city lived mostly in one quarter, on the Aventine Hill.
During a famine, he advised that grain should not be distributed to theplebeians unless they relinquished their right to choose the Tribúni Plebis.
Gentes among the plebeiansnow began to be recognized; previously only the patricians had been divided into gentes.
This class of inhabitants on the ager Romanus, or in Rome itself, were calledPlebeians (Plebs, multitude).
The plebeianswere now (about 475) as numerous as the patricians, if not more so.
But gradually, as the influence of the wealthy plebeians began to be felt, the organization was found well adapted for political purposes, and all the people were called together to vote under it.
We must not forget that, since it was on a property basis, it was under the control of the patricians, for the great mass of plebeians were poor.
The patricians and richer plebeians saw that concessions must be made, for the loss of these people would be ruin to Rome.
The Equites were originally from the aristocracy alone, but, as the plebeians increased in wealth, many of them became rich enough to be included in this class.
But is it," he asked, at length, "only the plebeians who will rise?
True, those men were chiefs and nobles; but are plebeians less human?
Though the way to petition was not absolutely debarred to them, it was made very irksome and perilous for plebeians to sue and obtain a hearing for their manifold complaints.
Plebeians of rare merit, especially those who were skilled in certain branches of art and learning, were able to find their way upward without much difficulty.
The institutions which we find existing in historic times must have been evolved by some such struggle between the orders of patricians and plebeians as that which Livy presents to us.
The great and small but rarely meet On terms of amity complete; Plebeians must surrender, And yield so much to noble folk, It is combining fire with smoke, Obscurity with splendour.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "plebeians" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word. Other words: common; commune; people; populace; public
