How Rome's Commoners Won Their Rights by Fleeing

The Secession of the Plebs (secessio plebis) refers to a series of general strikes in the early history of the Roman Republic, when the plebeians – or commoners – left the cityen masse and set up camp on the nearby Sacred Mountain, to protest their treatment by the ruling patrician class. Part of a broader clash between the Roman social classes known as the Conflict of the Orders, these secessions achieved several compromises that guaranteed more rights for the plebs. There were three major secessions of the plebs that occurred in 495-94 BCE, 449 BCE, and 287 BCE.