ABSTRACT
THE class struggles in this second period of Roman history followed much less simple lines than in the first. A new factor was present—side by side with and in the face of the ancient landed nobility there was an increasing equestrian order which had enriched itself by exploiting the wars, by trade, industry, usury and by the system of concessions, and was tending to predominate in the land. This order of equites, naturally hostile to the senatorial patrician class, whose privileges it wished for itself, attempted to seek support among the ever-growing plebs of the capital; then, when the mob became too menacing and their riches seemed in peril, the equiies once more turned towards their late enemies.
