Note 809 — Chapter XII · THE STATE (C) PHILOSOPHY OF POLITICS

Plebs corresponds to the “Tiers” (burghers and yeomen) of the eighteenth century, populus to the megalopolitan masses of the nineteenth. The difference manifested itself in their respective attitudes towards the freed slaves, mostly of non-Italian origin. These the Plebs, as an order, sought to thrust away into as few tribes as possible, but in the Populus as a party they very soon came to play the decisive rôle.