Definition:
In contrast with the plebeians, who started as the poor, but wound up with power and money, and the noble patricians, who started out with land and continued to hold certain aristocratic privileges, the landless proletariat was the lowest class of citizens in ancient Rome. It was for the proletariat that the Romans instituted the dole that we commonly hear called "bread and circuses." By bread and circuses is meant public entertainment in the arena (circuses) and a ration of grain (bread).
The first part of the word proletariat contains the Latin word proles, which means offspring. The proletariat were "producers of offspring."
In contrast with the plebeians, who started as the poor, but wound up with power and money, and the noble patricians, who started out with land and continued to hold certain aristocratic privileges, the landless proletariat was the lowest class of citizens in ancient Rome. It was for the proletariat that the Romans instituted the dole that we commonly hear called "bread and circuses." By bread and circuses is meant public entertainment in the arena (circuses) and a ration of grain (bread).
The first part of the word proletariat contains the Latin word proles, which means offspring. The proletariat were "producers of offspring."
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