Why was the Roman Republic facing serious social and political instability by the early 1st Century BC?
By the early 1st Century the Roman Republic was facing social and political instability. The Roman Empire had been growing rapidly for some time, putting a strain on social order. Amongst the problems created were army reforms, difficulties with the constitution, class division and the land crisis.
Class division and difficulties with the constitution were very closely related and a lot of problems with the constitution were caused by the class division between the plebeians and the patricians. They both caused a lot of problems and political and social instability. Patricians were the aristocracy of the Roman Republic. You had to earn 400,000 sesterces or more to be a patrician. The plebeians were the people. They made up the rest of the population and had many different levels of wealth within it. You could be well-to-do tradesmen or extremely poor and you would still be considered a plebeian. You could really notice the class division within the republic. Patricians and Plebeians had the right to vote. Only men with a Roman citizenship could vote; women, slaves and foreigners were not allowed. Out of everyone who could vote, the weight of your vote depended on your social class- the richer you were the more you vote counted for. So if a group of aristocrats were to group together then they could control the government by controlling who became consul. This meant that really only the rich could hope of becoming elected. Because the senate (a hugely influential advisory committee made up of ex-magistrates) was basically run by the aristocracy the plebs needed someone to express their views and to protest against laws they didn’t agree with. Tribunes were created for this role. They were plebs voted into act by the other plebs. The primary power of tribunes was that they could veto any official act of administration. This caused them to have many enemies as if used against the consuls legislations, the power of veto could be powerful and stop anything from
Class division and difficulties with the constitution were very closely related and a lot of problems with the constitution were caused by the class division between the plebeians and the patricians. They both caused a lot of problems and political and social instability. Patricians were the aristocracy of the Roman Republic. You had to earn 400,000 sesterces or more to be a patrician. The plebeians were the people. They made up the rest of the population and had many different levels of wealth within it. You could be well-to-do tradesmen or extremely poor and you would still be considered a plebeian. You could really notice the class division within the republic. Patricians and Plebeians had the right to vote. Only men with a Roman citizenship could vote; women, slaves and foreigners were not allowed. Out of everyone who could vote, the weight of your vote depended on your social class- the richer you were the more you vote counted for. So if a group of aristocrats were to group together then they could control the government by controlling who became consul. This meant that really only the rich could hope of becoming elected. Because the senate (a hugely influential advisory committee made up of ex-magistrates) was basically run by the aristocracy the plebs needed someone to express their views and to protest against laws they didn’t agree with. Tribunes were created for this role. They were plebs voted into act by the other plebs. The primary power of tribunes was that they could veto any official act of administration. This caused them to have many enemies as if used against the consuls legislations, the power of veto could be powerful and stop anything from