The Economic Disadvantages of Rome in the Late 100s

Late republican Rome had its 1% and as in many other periods of history an inside track of blue bloods married one another enjoyed near monopoly on land ownership. Commoners saw that for the deaths of their sons, brothers and husbands they were to be rewarded with nothing whatsoever other than inflation and rising rents. And Roman commoners over the early to mid-100s faced something else that exacerbated their already centuries long economic disadvantages. As the 140 BCE dragged into the 130s, the groundswell of urbanization and popular unrest in Rome led to the rise of demagogues who understood the plight of the common citizen.