Question

What was tacitus description on Roman social hierarchies or social groups?

Answer 1

ANSWER

In the Roman Kingdom and the early Roman Republic the most important division in Roman society was between the patricians and the plebeians. The patricians were a small elite whose ancestry was traced to the first Senate established by Romulus, who monopolised political power.

Answer 2

Answer:

• The social structures of the empire as follows: Senators, Equites (horse men and knights), the respectable section of the people (middle class), lower class and finally the slaves.

• In the early third century when the Senate numbered roughly 1,000, approximately half of all senators still came from Italian families. By the late empire,the senators and the Equites had merged into a unified and expanded aristocracy.

• The ‘middle’ class now consisted of the considerable mass of persons connected with imperial service in the bureaucracy. Below them were the vast mass of the lower classes known collectively ashumiliores (literally- ‘Lower’).They comprised a rural labour force.

• The late Roman bureaucracy, both the higher and middle echelons, was a comparatively affluent group because it drew the bulk of its salary in gold and invested much of this in buying up assets like land.  There was a great deal of corruption, especially in the judicial system and in the administration of military supplies.