Greece vs. Rome |
The Greek and Romans are known for their rivaling civilizations. They are both organized their social classed based on wealth and occupation, with similar views on citizenship, but Rome took the extra step to split the classes into another two groups. It's Greece VS. Rome. Who has the better, organized, more sophisticated social classes?
Social classes are separated differently between the Greeks and the Romans. The Romans have many classes under the following two categories: patricians and plebeians. Patricians are the upper class and the plebs were basically everyone else, not including slaves. However, the Greeks don't have that. They only have four general categories, while the Romans have two general classes with a few subcategories, which were the same as the Greek's classes. Though the social classes are separated differently, they both base the social classes on majorly on wealth and occupation. Both Rome and Greece have a separate class for slaves. Slaves are prisoners of war, rescued infants, and criminals. Next in the social ladder is the Lower Class, where freemen and metics, people who came from the outside of the city that couldn't own land, but they could run businesses. In the Middle Class, there are merchants, artists, craftsmen, tradesmen, and manufacturers. They also (obviously) earn more money than the lower class, but not as much as the upper class. Members of the Upper Class (or patricians for Rome) are wealthy. They own plenty of land and are a part of either the government, military, literature, or philosophy.
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Citizenship is a huge part of the organization of the social classes. Citizens of Rome are free(d) adult men. These men are a part of the plebs and patricians. Slaves, women, and children aren't considered citizens. The Greeks also felt that all men were not created equal. Athenians thought there was no bigger disgrace than losing one's citizenship. Non-citizens have no chance of being in the upper class. The highest they could get up this social ladder is the middle class, but they have to be pretty well off if they made it that far. They also aren't allowed to own land or marry into the family of a citizen in both societies.
To sum everything up, Romans split their classes into plebeians, patricians, and slaves, unlike the Greeks, but the classes of both societies are both based on wealth and occupation, and citizenship is viewed similarly. Now, who do you think won this round of Greece VS. Rome? Did Rome's organization make you turn to the Roman god, Jupiter? Or maybe you stuck by Zeus, for the Greek's simple way of organizing their social classes.
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