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Social Hierarchy in Ancient Rome

The Social hierarchy in Ancient Rome was reflected in the distribution of, wealth, power, and privilege among its citizens.

Slaves and Gladiators- How slaves and gladiators were treated in ancient Rome slaves were at bottom class and had zero rights, and had lived very harsh lives and were often whipped, hit, or cruelly treated and their owners could kill them for any reason without being sentenced to jail, and some slaves were forced into fighting in gladiators battles were they were starved and could return from battles with injuries or even die, all for the Romans entertainment. Slaves were usually born into slavery as a child of an enslaved mother or become war captives and were considered legally enslaved, if a slave was too old to work, they were just left to pass away, by not being feed, but if they were lucky elderly slaves were granted freedom for their last days.

Women- Denying the rights of women, if you were a woman during ancient Rome, you would have a much harder time than men, they were treated terrible and had little to no rights, during the kingdom of Ancient Rome, women's rights were much more restricted, but slowly they gained more rights over time, the women were expected to be housewives and to look after the children in their house hold and the oldest male was allowed more rights and freedom then their children and wife, and held absolute authority. Unfortunately, there is little information on the lives of women in Ancient Rome because women were not allowed in politics nor to be written about, and they could not write it for themselves because they were never taught to write or read and never went to school.  

Freedman- Freedmen were slaves that were trusted and behaved well that A freedman or freedwoman also known as a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, slaves were freed by their owners, or by self-purchase, and they were seen as trusted and granted limited rights such as, full Roman citizenship, any children born to freedman after formal manumission, gained the full Roman citizenship and the right to hold in office, the freedman were technical lower class plebians.

Plebian- If you were plebian (poor), you most likely worked as a farmer, baker, builder or craftsman, these jobs made you not part of the patrician, senatorial or equestrian class and you lived in the city as a free roman citizen who worked hard to support your family and pay taxes, how this affected the plebians is that they were often rejected from ever marring a patrician (rich), the most amount of rights an plebians had ever had is that they gained the right to vote in assemblies and were in a political struggle for more than 200 years, the plebians made up the majority of the Roman Republic and also made up a significant portion of military soldiers, most plebians lived in a 3 or 4 story building called an insula, similar to an apartment which can house many families, when Julius Caeser was an emperor he tried his best to make it more easier and beneficial to find jobs for plebian families and also redistributed large amount of land owned by patricians to plebians, in politics the plebians were excluded from the Senate and all public offices except for military tribune, before the law in 445 B.C.E.

Patricians- Patricians were one of the richest in Ancient Rome living in a privileged position, the patricians were excluded from mandatory military services for plebians and only patricians were able to become emperor, but patricians could still find themselves wrapped up in palace intrigue and they were highly powerful in the early days of ancient Rome, but slowly lost their power, and roman citizens in general were treated as subjects, more than citizens and was a entierly different place based on your level of power. During Ancient Rome society was split into two sides patricians and plebians, the patricians monopolized all the power in Rome, which made the plebians increasingly upset, which did eventually come in the plebians favour, but before that the patricians lived an extremely comfortable in a single home with their family and which in ancient times meant that grandparents, parents and children all lived under the same roof, and majority of patricians were wealthy landowners and the majority of the senate.

Emperor- The emperor’s job was the most important and was the biggest threat for the enemy, the first 7 of roman emperors were Augustus, Claudius, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius. The Roman emperor had power over all of Rome’s military governors and most of the Roman army, the emperors tribunician powers gave him power over dominating the assembles and senate, no patricians, women, freedman, slaves, or gladiators could become emperors and had all control of laws, the emperor was the strongest position in the roman empire, and one of the strongest most powerful emperors was Caeser Augustus, the first and most powerful, while he was in his youth the Octavian faced Ancient Rome with the bloodiest civil war yet Ancient Rome still lived on.