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Question: Informatin on roman history please!?
what is some evidence that shows that there were social classes in rome!? howdo historians and archeologist know!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
There are a few sources!.

Let's start first with written accounts!. People like Cicero and some of the Roman Emperors wrote quite detailed accounts of their lives and what was going on at the time!. These were rediscovered in the renaissance period and it's why Latin is such an important language still!. It's where we get the terms vulgar (popular or common) and pleb (plebius - the people/ the masses)!.

Second there is archaeological evidence: sites like Pompeii, Herculaneum, Rome itself, and other major sites across Europe and North Africa have art, mosaics, artifacts and such like which show people doing various things!. There are also the remains of people's houses and the contents within, some of which were grand and others that were just huts!. From these forms of evidence we can infer a certain amount about class structure!.

We will never know for sure, in the way that we know there is a class structure now!. But the evidence is very strong!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

well you can see the large estates that were all over the italian countryside that had large buildings that housed many people, indentured servants or slaves, then there was a large villa where the family lived!. That would later fuel Sparticus`s slave revolt, The mass number of slaves and virtually no thnic Italians to fight the rebelion, they were all serving in forgein countries in the roman legions!. In Pompeii there was a young woman who died trying to protect a young child, they first thought she was a caring sister after later tests showed that her body had seen a hard working life unlike the child she was protecting, logically she was a slave or servant to the family!. There was also a roman version of "fast food"!. There was also the different working classes in cities which were shown by different housing!. hope that helpsWww@QuestionHome@Com

Rome was a highly hierarchial and class-conscious society, but there was the possibility of mobility between most classes because by the second century BCE class was no longer determined solely by birth!. The classes described below superseded the old patrician/plebeian distinction, though certain elements of dress and religious positions and rituals were still reserved for patricians!. There was a large gulf between the wealthy upper classes and the poorer lower classes, though it was still possible—although quite difficult—to move upwards by acquiring sufficient wealth!.


Upper Classes
Senatorial class (senatores): The basis for this class was political!. It included all men who served in the Senate, and by extension their families!. This class was dominated by the nobles (nobiles), families whose ancestors included at least one consul (earlier the qualification had been a curule magistracy, i!.e!. curule aedile and up)!. The first man in his family to be elected consul, thus qualifying his family for noble status, was called a “new man” (novus homo)!. Senators had to prove that they had property worth at least 1,000,000 sesterces; there was no salary attached to service in the Senate, and senators were prohibited from engaging personally in nonagricultural business, trade or public contracts!. Men of the senatorial class wore the tunic with broad stripes (laticlavi)!.
Equestrian class (equites): The basis for this class was economic!. A man could be formally enrolled in the equestrian order if he could prove that he possessed a stable minimum amount of wealth (property worth at least 400,000 sesterces); by extension his family members were also considered equestrians!. However, if an equestrian was elected to a magistracy and entered the Senate, he moved up to the senatorial class; this was not particularly easy or frequent!. Equestrians were primarily involved in the types of business prohibited to senators!. Equestrians wore the tunic with narrow stripes (angusti clavi)!.
Women: Although membership in these classes was dominated by the same families over many generations, the classes themselves were defined according to male activities rather than birth!. Women's place in these classes was therefore somewhat problematic!. However, there came to be a customary acceptance that women belonged to the social class of their fathers and then of their husbands, although the women had no special dress that distinguished their status!. This female participation in social status began to crystallize and formalize under Augustus, who explicitly included the daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters of senators in his law prohibiting members of the senatorial class from contracting legal marriages with freedpeople!.

Belonging to one of these upper classes had many significant consequences for Romans besides prestige, for social class determined one's economic and political opportunities, as well as legal rights, benefits and penalties!. Rome had nothing comparable to our middle class; the gulf between these two upper classes and the much larger lower classes was immense!. However, as long as one was a freeborn Roman citizen there was at least a slight possibility of moving into the equestrian class through the acquisition of wealth!. Entry into the senatorial class, even for wealthy equestrians, was extremely difficult, since for centuries a small number of elite families had monopolized this class!.


Lower Classes
Commons (plebs or vulgus): all other freeborn Roman citizens!. The special mark of dress for citizen males was the toga!. All Roman citizens had conubium, the right to contract a legal marriage with another Roman citizen and beget legitimate children who were themselves Roman citizens!.
Latins (Latini)%Www@QuestionHome@Com

There is an incredible amount of sources you could use to prove there was different class levels!.
Primary sources such as Livy, Julius Caesar, Plutarch, Augustus, Tacitus!.!.!. google any of them!.
Livy's "A History of Rome" is a good place to start!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Written scrolls, buildings, statues!. Www@QuestionHome@Com