Rome, Ancient

Roman Social History

Rome was situated at an important river crossing approximately 17miles inland from the mouth of the Tiber, and thus was in a position to control trade into the back country. The city had a mixed population of locals and foreigners from its very beginnings.

The common inhabitants of Rome were originally divided into three tribes (either related to the root “tres”—three—or thought to derive from “trifu,” a term used on some second century BCE bronze tablets found in Umbria, where it appears to mean “community”). Later, more tribes were created to accommodate the inhabitants of the incorporated territories, those where Roman citizens had settled or whose original population had been incorporated as citizens. There were always four tribes for the city of Rome, and, ultimately, 31 “rustic” ones. Every citizen had to belong to a tribe, and personal names would be ordered as follows: first or given name; then the family name or, in the case of patricians, the name of the gens(clan); next the name of the father; then the name of the voting tribe; and last, a cognomen, frequently an optional nickname. The standard example is always Marcus (preanomen) Tullius (his gens) Marci filius (son of Marcus) Cornelia tribu (voting tribe) Cicero (cognomen). Later, these cognomina became more popular than the first or given names, and during the empire even the plebsbegan to use them.

Roman citizens were also divided according to wealth into a classis (group or class; plural: classes); the two classes were those who could afford to arm themselves and the rest, who could not. During the fifth century, at the time of the Middle Republic, this rough division was refined into five classes: three that functioned as heavy infantry, and two as skirmishers. During the Late Republic, the division into classeswas also used for tax purposes. Until 167 BCE all individuals had to pay tributum or direct taxes, an amount that could vary from year to year according to the needs of the state. After that date, all citizens, inhabitants of Italian coloniae or Italy itself, were exempt: the wealth that came from the provinces, which were under direct government of the Roman state, was sufficient.

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