Western Civilization I / Unit 6 WC1 0504 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Patricians and Plebeians: The Conflict of the Orders
Captions available
The idea
About one hundred patrician families faced the plebeians from about five hundred to three sixty. In four ninety-four a threatened secession won two tribunes with a veto; debt slavery was banned; in two eighty-seven plebiscites became law.
In practice
The parallel to Athens's debt crisis, and its different ending.
Where people slip
Wealthy plebeians joined the patricians. The result was a new aristocracy, not equality.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it