Compare the role of the plebeians in government during the Tsarist period and during the Early Roman Republic.

The plebeians were personally free, carried out military service on a par with the patricians, and paid taxes. Their commercial and industrial wealth was concentrated mainly in their hands. When Rome turned to the policy of conquest, the plebeians were not allowed to divide the occupied territory. The land question was intertwined with the question of the political rights of the plebeians. Sharp conflicts followed, leading to radical reforms. The plebeians were not allowed to carry weapons, their marriages were not recognized as legal – these measures were calculated to leave them without protection, without the support of the family and clan organization.