Rome and the Plebes

Rome's position visavi, the nomadic herdsman, was never seriously threatened. The total military dominance of rome over the hill tribes eventually led the plebe leaders to suspect that the patricians were not being totally honest with the threat level posed by the tribes. It was during these years that the plebes really started to resist military service and openly questioned patrician motives at one point. However, caught up in their own rhetoric, they failed to believe it when the senate woke up one morning and announced that a small sabine army had penetrated the city and taken the citadel.