The Struggle of the Orders, although commonly thought to be a successful venture by the plebeians to gain a legislated equality, was merely a transition of power from a patrician-ruled aristocracy to the Nobilis - a class consisting of the 'best of both worlds'. In the time leading up to, and throughout the Struggle, the classes vied for power; the plebeians pushing to gain it, and the patricians grasping at the threads of their failing authority. With the close of the Struggle of the Orders, a new class was formed and raised to rule - the Nobilis.
The Struggle of the Orders was, essentially, a class conflict, however not in a fiscal sense; unlike Marxian classes, the gap between the plebeians - who were the lower class; and the patricians - the upper class, was a legal issue (Nicols, J., 2005). The patricians were "a small group of citizens - they represented less than 10% of Rome's population - who were legally and socially superior to the majority of citizens," (Gowen, H., 2001). Through their acquisition of wealth and land, and having descended from the Patres - the original Roman senators - they had gained this privileged position, dominating the social, political, and economic arenas (Ross, S., 2005). …
