Latin words

plebs, plebis.

The terms is ordinarily only used in the singular, to refer to the mass of Roman citizens as opposed to the priviledged aristocrats, the patricians. Distinguish it from populus, which properly refers to all the people of any given community, and at Rome therefore refers to patricians and plebeians alike. (Populi will then be the peoples of various communities--Athenians, Syracusans, etc.) During the Republic, one was a patrician by birth, depending on whether one was born into one of the few official patrician families or not. By the time of Julius Caesar the number of patrician families had shrunk from around 50 to only 14, and Caesar and the emperors following him were able to create new patricians. By the third century AD the importance of the patricians as a hereditary class was lost.

The origin of the plebs/patrician distinction is unclear; it is not certain even whether it originated under the monarchy (traditionally dated 753-509 BC) or following the foundation of the Republic in 509 BC. What seems clear is that the early history of the Republic is in large part the story of the "conflict of the orders," the struggle of the plebs to gain something like equal status with the patricians. The patricians had originally a monopoly, or a near monopoly, on political and religious offices, but the plebs gained status by organizing itself and naming its own officers, tribunes, and by resorting to secessio, leaving Rome en masse, a sort of general strike. An early milestone in the rise of plebeian rights is usually taken to be the codification of Roman law in the 12 Tables of c. 450 BC; while these laws still preserved many patrician prerogatives, the very fact that the law was now published meant that all, including the plebs, had some access to it. By 287 BC the plebs was firmly integrated into the political community; for example, resolutions of the plebeian assembly, plebiscita (whence our "plebiscite") were now binding on all Romans. The main area in which patricians retained privileges was in religion; certain priesthoods had to be at least 50% patrician, and a few select priests had to be patrician.

Of course wealth and social status (defined more loosely than by the old patrician code) continued to count for much, as the weight of one's vote in most Roman assemblies was tied to one's wealth, and only members of prominent families were able, as a rule, to rise to the highest offices in the state.