Plebeians
The earliest Roman religion was animistic, i.e. the belief that spirits haunted the household, fields and forests, and determined the weather. Roman state grew out of the house religion. Vesta, goddess of the hearth, home, and family, became goddess of the civic hearth (the sacred flame of the state); Janus, god of doors (beginnings and transitions), became god of the city’s gates; Mars, god of crops and vegetation, became god of war; and Jupiter, god of the rain and Sun, became god of sky and lightning (the king of the gods).
The task of a Roman priest was to establish the ‘peace of the gods’ by seeking the gods’ agreement to human requests. The two most important priestly committees or colleges were the augurs, who foretold the future from omens and other signs, and the pontiffs, who supervised Roman religion. The chief pontiff, the pontifex maximus, was the head of the state clergy and was chosen by election. There were also two colleges of priestesses: those of Ceres, goddess of fertility and death, and those of the Vestal Virgins who tended the civic hearth and made sure that its fire never went out.
After the expulsion of the kings, their sacral duties were partially assumed by a priest called rex sacrorum (‘king of the sacred rites’). He was chosen by the pontifex maximus, served for life, and wholly excluded from political office and membership of the Senate. His wife, the regina sacrorum, also performed religious duties specific to her role.
The pontiffs were the guardians of the ius Divinum (‘divine law’) and had charge of the Roman calendar. By determining what was fas (‘religiously legitimate’) or nefas (‘religiously offensive’) they expanded the criminal code and the procedure in private law; and by declaring what days were fasti (‘lucky’) or nefasti (‘unlucky’) and by their interpretation of prodigia (‘wonders’) they obtained influence over public business.
Grievances of alleged offences by other states were taken to another group of priests, the fetiales, who would oversee the matter. Ambassadors were sent to the offending state and if restitution was not made during a thirty-day interval then the Senate could proclaim a ‘just’ war.
Plebeians
During the early years of the Republic, the government of Rome was dominated by the wealthy landowning patricians referred to as patres (the ‘fathers’). The plebeians were a considerably larger group of less wealthy landowners, artisans, merchants and small farmers. A plebs urbana was formed by traders attracted to the city and by clients who had lost their patrons; a plebs rustica arose from farmers ruined by war or other causes. Both classes could vote and make legal contracts, but only patricians could be senators, magistrates and consuls. The patricians maintained their exclusiveness by avoiding intermarriage with the plebs. But when war took a heavy toll on the nobles, the ranks of the plebeians were increased by the clients of the patrician families that died out.
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