The Conflict of the Orders was a political struggle primarily for plebeian rights between which two social groups?

• A. Patricians and slaves
• B. Patricians and plebeians
• C. Senators and equites
• D. Plebeians and freedmen

Answer: (B)

At the heart of this question is the ongoing power struggle between Rome’s two main free social groups in the early Republic: the patricians, the hereditary aristocracy who held most religious and political offices, and the plebeians, the common people who lacked access to those powers. The Conflict of the Orders emerged because plebeians demanded equal political rights and protections under the law. Over time they won important reforms—such as the creation of the tribune of the plebs to veto harmful actions, the eventual codification of laws in the Twelve Tables, and eventual access for plebeians to major magistracies like the consulship. The essential point is that this conflict was between those who controlled the state’s power (patricians) and those who sought to share in it (plebeians), not between patricians and slaves, nor between other elite groups, nor between plebeians and freedmen.