PLEBS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Plebs

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noun

Plebs n.

The commonalty of ancient Rome who were citizens without the usual political rights; the plebeians; distinguished from the patricians.

Hence, the common people; the populace; construed as a pl.

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Etymology of 'Plebs'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Plebs" Quotes from Famous Books

... preclarum, disciplinamque, quam a majoribus accepimus, si quidem teneremus! sed nescio quo pacto jam de manibus elabitur. Nullam enim illi nostri sapientissimi et sanctissimi viri vim concionis esse voluerunt, quae scisseret plebs, aut quae populus juberet; summota concione, distributis partibus, tributim et centuriatim descriptis ordinibus, classibus, aetatibus, auditis auctoribus, re multos dies promulgata et cognita, juberi vetarique ...

— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... despotism of Rome stript the Curiales of all they earned, to pay its own functionaries and soldiers; and gave them the power of appointing magistrates, who were only after all the imperial agents of that despotism, for whose sake they robbed their fellow-citizens. How the plebs, comprising the small tradesmen and free artizans, were utterly unable to assert their own opinions or rights. How the slave population, though their condition was much improved, constituted a mere dead ...

— The Roman and the Teuton - A Series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge • Charles Kingsley