Secessio plebis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Secessio plebis (withdrawal of the commoners, or Secession of the Plebs) was an informal exercise of power by Rome's plebian citizens, similar to a strike. During a secessio plebis the citizens would simply abandon the city en masse and leave the patrician order to themselves. This was an effective strategy due to their strength in numbers; plebian citizens made up the majority of Rome's populace and produced most of its food and resources, while the patrician citizen was a member of the minority upper class. The word has survived to the modern day in the term secession, meaning to withdraw from an organisation, union, or political entity.
[edit] Secessions in Roman history
In 494 BC, in response to the harsh rule of Appius Claudius Sabinus Inregillensis, the plebs seceded and fled to a "holy hill". In response, the patricians freed some of the plebs from their debts and conceded some of their power by creating the office of the tribune of the people. This tribune was the first government position held by the plebs. The powers of the tribunes changed over time. At their zenith, the plebian tribunes exercised the power of veto (veto meaning "I forbid"), by which they could forbid or invalidate any decision or action of a magistrate, including a consul or praetor, or indeed of the whole senate, that he deemed harmful to the plebs. The nadir of the tribunician power in the republican period may have occurred with the constitutional legislation of the dictator Sulla.
In 449 BC, the plebs seceded again to force the patricians to adopt the Twelve Tables. Unlike the earlier secret laws which only the priests had access to, these new laws amounted to a written and published legal code. And unlike the earlier non-published laws, the Twelve Tables presented a basic set of laws and rights to the Roman public, as opposed hidden and secret laws which gave no specific rights to the ordinary plebian Roman. The patricians vehemently opposed it but were nevertheless forced to found a commission headed by a decemvir who in turn announced the Twelve Tables in the Roman Forum. With the announcement of the new laws, the plebs were to a degree freed from injustice and subjectivity during trials. However, they were still obligated to pay slavery debt.
In 287 BC, the plebs seceded a final time to force the patricians to adopt the Lex Hortensia, which gave the plebs the final say in all legislative matters. The plebs were granted the right to be elected to any position in the state, the Lex Ogulnia, which granted them right to be priests, and the marriage between a pleb and a patrician was deemed legal. Debt slavery was also terminated. However, the laws approved by the popular assemblies were always written and approved by the patricians. The Gracchi, in the second century BC, were the first and only politicians who gave a bill directly to the assembly without approving it with the patricians beforehand.
Wealthy plebs benefited more from secessions than the general public. The powers granted to them allowed them to form a new layer of aristocracy called nobiles or optimates. For the less wealthy, the plebian rights and powers were not as useful because the service was pro bono and a matter of honour.
