The Struggle of the OrdersThere is sufficient evidence to indicate that class warfare existed in Rome. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, war could be defined as “A state of competition, conflict or hostility between different people or groups” (OED). The Conflict of the Orders, also known as the Struggle of the Orders, was a political struggle between two orders in Roman society. The political conflict involved two classes known as the patricians and the plebeians. The Patricians were defined as the aristocratic class that came to monopolize the political and religious institutions of Rome. Plebeians, initially referred to as non-patricians, were the common people of Rome. In the first centuries of the Roman republic the plebeians suffered under the rule of the patrician order; the upper and lower classes of the plebeian order were barred from the political and religious institutions of Rome. Furthermore, unjust laws, such as debtor laws, were also imposed. Furthermore, the plebeians had no right to appeal against the laws imposed by the patrician government. The reason class warfare existed in Rome is because the plebeians demanded political equality; consequently, not having the privileges to participate in the political and religious institutions of Rome. To prove that class wars existed in Rome, it is necessary to demonstrate and define the different class structures that existed in Roman society; and demonstrate how the Romans define class. The Latin term ordo defines the social and political rank of the citizen; in English the term ordo can be translated as rank or class. The English word for class, in Latin, translates to classis, meaning wealth classification. After the removal of…half the paper…over time their landholdings became too small to support them. As a result, they were forced to sell off their lands, forcing large landowners to monopolize access to public lands. To resolve the problems of land monopolization and debt concerns, major reforms such as the Licinius-Sextian laws were proposed by C. Licinius Stolus and L. Sextius Lateranus, Lewis and Reinhold state: "Although this provision was only applied in a approximate, began an era of land grants to impoverished citizen-soldiers” (Lewis, 129). These reforms were instituted to relieve the poor plebeian soldiers from the debt and high interest rates that were imposed on them the amount of land an owner could own. Furthermore, following successful conquests in central Italy, small agricultural holdings were created for the impoverished Roman soldier.