The Secession of the Plebs (secessio plebis) refers to a series of general strikes in the early history of the Roman Republic, when the plebeians – or commoners – left the city en masse and set up camp on the nearby Sacred Mountain, to protest their treatment by the ruling patrician class. Part of a broader clash between the Roman social classes known as the Conflict of the Orders, these secessions achieved several compromises that guaranteed more rights for the plebs. There were three major secessions of the plebs that occurred in 495-94 BCE, 449 BCE, and 287 BCE.
Background
According to tradition, the Roman Republic was founded in 509 BCE, when the last of the kings was driven from the city. But although liberty had ostensibly triumphed over tyranny, not every citizen of the new republic was equal. The patricians, the old aristocratic ruling class, still controlled the government and were the only ones allowed to hold political office or sit in the Roman Senate. By contrast, the commoners – or plebeians – held almost no political power, despite constituting the majority of the Roman population. In these early days, most plebeians worked as farmers but would often be called upon to serve in the Roman army and defend Rome from its many foes.
And indeed, there were many battles to be fought, as Rome struggled to survive against multiple onslaughts from the neighboring Latin and Etruscan tribes. Determined to defend their homes and newly won liberties, the Roman people eagerly put down their ploughs, picked up their swords, and marched to war. Many of those who returned found that their fields had been put to the torch during the fighting and that they were now left with nothing. Desperate for reprieve, they turned to predatory moneylenders, which only condemned them to a vicious cycle of debt; those who could not pay off their debts were often enslaved. As Rome continued to fight off its enemies and the fields of Italy continued to be ravaged by war, this problem only worsened, as the two social orders struggled to find their place in this new society.
First Secession Begins: 495 BCE
One day in 495 BCE, an old man appeared in the Roman Forum. He was dressed in "soiled, threadbare clothes" that hardly covered his "dreadful pallor and emaciated body" (Livy, 2.23). His hair and beard were long and wild, his skin covered in scars. As the Roman people beheld this pitiful man, some realized, with astonishment, that they knew him: he had been an army officer whose company of soldiers was famous for their heroic exploits. When asked how a war hero like him could have fallen on such hard times, the man explained that he had lost everything while serving in the army. His crops had been burnt, his cottage destroyed, his cattle stolen. When he returned from the front lines, he had been unable to pay his taxes and had fallen into debt, with the interest on the borrowed money only increasing his burden. He lamented that:
I lost the land which my father and grandfather had owned before me, and then my other possessions; ruin spread like a disease through all I had, and even my body was not exempt from it, for I was finally seized by my creditor and reduced to slavery: nay, worse – I was hauled away to prison and the slaughterhouse.
(Livy, 2.23)
When he finished his story, the old man lifted his tattered shirt to show off the scars on his back, inflicted by the slaver's whip. His listeners were moved to both pity and rage – many of them had either suffered as he did or knew someone who had. A mob quickly formed, as more citizens, fed up with the cycle of debt, took to the streets. Before long, few senators or moneylenders dared leave their homes for fear of their safety. Presently, the two consuls appeared in the Forum to try to restore order. The first, Appius Claudius Regillensis, was a proud conservative while his consular colleague, Publius Servilius, was more sympathetic to the plebs. The consuls promised that if the people dispersed, the Senate would convene and consider their qualms. The passions of the mob died down enough to allow the senators to nervously gather and debate their options. Speaking before the Senate, Appius was in favor of crushing all dissent by force, while Servilius believed that the plebs would listen to reason.
But before they could reach a decision, their discussion was cut short by alarming news – an army from the hostile city of Volsci was marching on Rome. Instantly, Servilius rushed outside the Senate House to address the Roman people. He announced that the city was in danger and implored the men to fight. In return, he promised to issue an edict making it illegal to imprison a Roman citizen for debt and that no soldier would have his property seized or sold while serving in the army. As a show of goodwill, Servilius ordered the immediate release of those already imprisoned for debt. This impressed the plebs, many of whom gathered in the Forum to take the military oath. Servilius then led his army out and defeated the Volscians in battle. The soldiers were allowed to plunder the enemy camp and returned to Rome content, believing that the consuls would keep their word.
Appius, however, had no intention of keeping Servilius's promises. Not only did he strongly disapprove of granting concessions to the commoners, but he also wished to discredit his consular colleague by painting him as a liar. No sooner had the army disbanded than Appius began to give "the harshest possible judgments in the cases which came before him for the recovery of debts" (Livy, 2.26). Veterans freshly returned from combat were rounded up and hauled off to prison. Feeling betrayed, a mob of soldiers surrounded Servilius's house, pleading for help. But Servilius was unable to intervene, since Appius was supported by almost the entire Senate. The mob dispersed, nursing a burning hatred for both consuls. A short time later, the Senate could not decide which of the consuls should perform the dedication ceremony for the new Temple of Mercury and put the vote to the people. The people shunned both consuls and instead chose a centurion named Marcus Laetorius for the honor. In effect, the plebs were saying that they would rather honor a low-born soldier than a lying politician.
Then, news reached Rome that the Sabines were preparing to attack. The Senate once again asked the people to enrol in the army. Still feeling betrayed, few did, and instead, people took to the streets in protest. Appius decided that this time, he would do things his way, vowing that "I myself will stand up alone for the majesty of my office and the Senate" (Livy, 2.27). He ordered his lictors to arrest one of the ringleaders. But as he was being dragged from the Forum, the man exercised his right to appeal to the people; though Appius was inclined to deny this, he was convinced by his fellow patricians to yield, to prevent more rioting. The man appealed, and, of course, the people voted for his release. Rioting continued for the rest of the year as the plebs began to gather in secret on the Esquiline and Aventine hills.
First Secession Continues: 494 BCE
In 494 BCE, two new consuls were chosen: Aulus Verginius and Titus Vetusius. Though some people were cautiously optimistic about the attitudes of these new consuls, the plebs continued holding their secret meetings to organize resistance. The decisive moment came when the consuls appeared in the Forum to once again call upon the people to enlist in the army to fight the Sabines. Once again, few people stepped forward; the plebs shouted that they would not fight for Rome until their liberties were guaranteed. Ultimately, things got so rowdy that the consuls sent a lictor into the crowd to arrest one of the mob's ringleaders. However, the people physically pushed the lictor back, and the mob became so violent that the consuls withdrew back to the Senate House.
The senators spent the next several hours deliberating on what to do next. On the advice of Appius Claudius, they decided to meet the crisis by naming a dictator and selected Manius Valerius Maximus for the position. Valerius knew that he had to focus on defeating the invading Sabines, and, to induce the people to join the army, he issued an edict similar to the one Servilius had promised the year before. This was enough to give the plebs hope, and many of them took the military oath. Valerius led these troops to battle and won a series of glorious victories, beating back the enemy. Now that Rome's safety had been assured, Valerius intended to honor his promises and went to the Senate, asking them to resolve the debt crisis. But the Senate, too prideful to back down, refused to cooperate. Frustrated and outraged, Valerius resigned the dictatorship in protest. As he walked home from the Senate House, the former dictator was cheered by the people for his efforts.
That night, the plebs convened one of their secret meetings to figure out what to do next. They briefly considered assassinating the consuls but decided against it, as doing so would be sacrilegious. Just as they were running out of options, a plebeian man named Lucius Sicinius Vellutus stepped forward and suggested that the plebs leave the city entirely and go to the Sacred Mountain (Mons Sacer), about three miles (5 km) northeast of Rome. What followed was perhaps one of the most incredible events in the history of Rome – the plebs left the city and set up camp on the mountain. Back in Rome, the senatorial class panicked; without the plebs to defend them, they were vulnerable to an enemy attack. The Senate sent a former consul, Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, to the mountain to negotiate with the plebs. A good speaker, Menenius implored them to return to Rome by telling this fable:
Long ago, when the members of the human body did not, as they do now, agree together, but each had its own thoughts and the words to express them in, the other parts resented the fact that they should have the worry and trouble of providing everything for the belly, which remained idle…with nothing to do but enjoy the pleasant things they gave it. So the discontented members plotted together that the hand should carry no food to the mouth, that the mouth should take nothing that was offered it, and that the teeth should accept nothing to chew. But alas! While they sought in their resentment to subdue the belly by starvation, they themselves and the whole body wasted away to nothing.
(Livy, 2.33)
Having demonstrated that all parts of society must work together to survive, Menenius then offered to negotiate with the plebs. An agreement was reached that a new political office would be established to represent the commoners. Known as ‘tribunes of the plebs', these officials would protect the plebeians from the abuses of the patrician class. The office of tribune was made sacrosanct, meaning that anyone who harmed a tribune would be condemned to death. Once this concession was granted, the plebs came off the mountain and returned to Rome, ending the first secession.
Second Secession: 449 BCE
For decades, the compromise reached on the Sacred Mountain reduced tensions between the social orders. But the conflict would be revived in 450 BCE, when the Senate appointed a commission of ten men – the decemviri – to draw up a law code for the city. The commissioners were to serve for a term of one year, during which all other offices and magistracies were suspended (including the tribune of the plebs). The decemviri completed their law code, the famous Twelve Tables, but refused to resign at the end of the year. This caused outrage throughout Rome, conjuring up memories of the kings who had once been expelled. The decemviri became more unpopular after one of their members, Appius Claudius – grandson and namesake of the former consul – tried to rape Verginia, a beautiful plebeian girl.
After Verginia was killed by her own father to preserve her honor, riots broke out throughout Rome and even spread to the army, encamped just outside the city. Hoping to quell the riots, the Senate pressured the decemviri to resign, but, once again, they refused. The plebs, remembering the success of their first secession nearly half a century earlier, packed up and withdrew to the Sacred Mountain, leaving the patrician class exposed and vulnerable in Rome. The Senate sent two envoys to negotiate with the plebs, who said they would not come off the mountain until the office of tribune of the plebs was restored and the decemvirate dissolved. This time, the Senate managed to force the resignations of the decemviri, and the republic was restored. True to their word, the plebs came off the mountain and returned to Rome. The Senate passed the Valerio-Horatian laws, which restored the previous rights of the plebeian and increased their political power in other ways.
Third Secession: 287 BCE
The second secession by no means put an end to the Conflict of the Orders. In 445 BCE, for instance, tempers flared up again when the Senate tried to uphold a law forbidding marriage between patricians and plebeians. Gaius Canuleius, one of the tribunes of the plebs, marshaled lots of support from the lower classes and managed to get this law repealed. That same year, Canuleius tried to make it legal for plebeians to be elected to the consulship; though the Senate balked at this proposal, they did reach a compromise, where plebeians could hold the rank of military tribune with consular authority.
The last secession of the plebs took place in 287 BCE. This occurred right after a major war, when large swathes of newly conquered territory were added to the Roman Republic. However, the Senate decided to give all these new lands only to patricians. The plebeian farmers, who had, of course, done most of the fighting, had nothing to show for their efforts except more debts, incurred while they had been away from their fields. The plebeians seceded once again, this time withdrawing to the Aventine Hill, where they set up camp. As they had in each previous instance, the Senate panicked; but now, rather than send an envoy to negotiate, they appointed a dictator, Quintus Hortensius, to deal with the problem however he pleased.
Rather than resort to violent means, however, Hortensius decided to compromise with the plebs. He passed a new law, the lex Hortensia, which proclaimed that all laws decided by the Plebeian Council - or plebiscite - were binding for all Roman citizens, regardless of rank. Essentially, this law finally gave plebeians the same political rights as patricians, at least on paper. Wealthy plebeians could now hold high offices and could even join the Senate; though patricians still had greater status as old nobility, they no longer had a monopoly on government in Rome. Thus, the Conflict of the Orders was over after two centuries of intermittent class struggle. By no means did this signal the end of class conflict in Rome – indeed, the story of rich versus poor would affect many other episodes in Roman history – but it did see the end of the remarkable general strikes of the lower class, the secessions of the plebs.
