Felicity ShouldersI wish generalist historians and writers would stop using “plebeian” and “patrician” when talking about ancient Rome. I’m a non-scholar Rome nerd and I don’t have all the answers, but I DO know that the usage varied hugely over time: and that in much discussed eras, many actual plebeians were in high office and flush with wealth! By Cicero’s time it was like asking whether your ancestors were in the fashionable cabins on the Mayflower or rode steerage. (1/2)
In most cases, it would be clearer and more accurate to use terms like “rich” and “poor”. And not just slapping “pleb” on something might actually sharpen the writer’s thinking. Who do they actually mean? “Urban poor”? Does the generalization include slaves? Women? Freedmen (often successful business owners!)? Do they actually mean senators and their families? Citizens? Are they actually talking only about one period of the centuries of “Rome”?
(Grumble grumble, get off my portico, et cetera.)
Will