Agnes Yu
World History
May 1, 2015
Social Class in Ancient Rome and Modern Times
Link 1)
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/sociology/social-and-global-stratification/types-of-social-classes-of-people
Link 2)
http://www.hierarchystructure.com/ancient-roman-hierarchy/
Social class refers to particular level in such a hierarchy. No matter in ancient times or nowadays,
social class has always existed. In ancient Rome, the social class defined who you are; what you
suppose to do, what you are not suppose do, whom you should work for, and it also relates to the
freedom you had in ancient Rome. However, it is the same thing and has the same definition in
modern times, such as, the United States. The social class plays an important role in the society of the
world.
The society in Rome was hierarchical, everything had a level and it defined who you are and what
role you are playing in the society. There were slaves, which were in the lower class, there was
middle class and upper class. And of course, the higher position you have, the easier your life is.
Also, Plebeian and Patricians are the two terms that were using in ancient Rome to describe the
lower class and the upper class.
Furthermore, let's talk about what each class could do in ancient Rome. In ancient Roman hierarchy,
if you were born in Rome had the roman blood, and owned numerous property and wealth, you were
definitely going under the category of Upper Class. Having slaves were like the symbol of the Upper
Class, and the girls were married very young. For the Lower Class, there were the commons, the
freed people and slaves, the commons were able to marry another Roman citizen and had kids. The
freed people were once slaves to the Rome and got their freedom for some reasons. The slaves were
the property of the owners, their freedom was controlled by their masters.
Social class also existing in the United States, the majority of population are in the Lower, middle and
the working class, most of them need to work and gain money to support their families or themselves.
The population of the Upper Class is off balance, the people who are defined as the Upper Class,
most of them are celebrities, heirs and politicians. And of course, it is not easy to become a celebrity
to live an easier life. The lower class is defined as the poor, they gained a certain amount of support in
a lot of aspects from the government, some of them couldn't even find and jobs, and those who got
jobs are the low-paid ones. People in the lower class, they are homeless, didn't finish high school and
lack of medical care. They don't have enough food and clothing. Similar to ancient Rome, the lower
class were majority slaves that could't find jobs and being as the property of the masters.
No matter how things have changed, time has changed, there is also a thing called the Social Class to
help the society to define the roles of its people. The good examples for that are ancient Rome and the
United States. And after all, I wish the government could care more about the
lower class people, because most of them are working really hard everyday just to survive, they
should provide more chances to them. For us, we should value everything that we have right now
because a lot of people outside that we don't know are starving and having a lot of troubles.
