It is hard to get any agreement on

It is hard to get any agreement on the precise meaning of the

term ‘social class’. In everyday life, people tend to have a different

approach to those they consider their equals from

that which they assume with people they consider higher

or lower than themselves in the social scale. The criteria we use

to 'place' a new acquaintance, however, are a complex mixture of factors. Dress, way of

speaking, area of residence in a given city or province, education and manners all play a

part.



In Greece, after the sixth-century B.C., there was a growing conflict between the peasants

and the landed aristocrats* and a gradual decrease in the power of the aristocracy when

a kind of ‘middle class’ of traders and skilled

workers grew up. The population of Athens, for example, was divided into

three main classes which were politically and legally distinct. About

one-third of the total were slaves, who did not count

politically at all, a fact often forgotten by those who praise Athens as the nursery of

democracy. The next main group consisted of resident foreigners,

the, ‘me tics’ who were freemen, though they too were allowed no share in political life.

The third group was the powerful body of ‘citizens’, who were themselves divided into sub-

classes.

In ancient Rome, too, a similar struggle between the plebs, or working people, and the

landed families was a recurrent feature of social life.


The medieval feudal system, which flourished in Europe from the ninth to the thirteenth

centuries, gave rise to a comparatively simple system based on

birth. Under the king there were two main classes - lords and 'vassals', the latter with many

subdivisions. The vassal owed the lord fidelity, obedience and aid, especially in the form of

military service. The lord in return owed his vassal protection and d livelihood.

In the later Middle Ages, however, the development of a money economy and the growth of

cities and trade led to the rise of another class, the ‘burghers’ or city merchants and

mayors. These were the predecessors of the modern middle classes.

Gradually high office and occupation assumed importance in determining social position, as

it became more and more possible for a person born to one station in life to move to

another. This change affected the towns more than the country areas, where

remnants of feudalism lasted much longer.