Wealth and Class

-At this point (c. 150 AD), the Romans had fundamentally changed and no longer pined for "the good ol' days" (the Republic)...the Roman character had fundamentally shifted!
   -During the Republic the Romans had been quite conservative- maintain a simple home and strong familial relationships, piousness, and a willingness to sacrifice oneself for the greater good of the public.
      -At this point, though, aristocratic Romans had grown lazy, self-indulgent, obsessed with petty gossip, ostentatious displays of wealth, and games.
      -The middle class had crumbled as farmers no longer had their own farms and had to either end working as tenants on aristocrats' huge estates or go try and find work in the city (where they would most likely be unemployed since they were farmers and didn't have the right skills for a city trade).
      -The military used to be made up of Roman citizen soldiers who came from farming backgrounds, but now it was made up almost entirely of professional soldiers from the provinces, as at this point being a soldier was one of the only ways the working class would have a shot at any kind of upwards mobility in society.
         -The only soldiers who were actually from Italia itself were usually either the poorest of the poor or aristocrats looking to go into politics later in life (and having served in the military would look quite nice on their resume).
   -How did this change happen?
      -Rome was now all-powerful (they controlled the Mediterranean!).
      -The empire had grown quite wealthy (presumably through taxes and conquest).'
      -New foreign philosophies and religions from Greece and the Near East had entered into the public consciousness.
   -The cracks in the empire were finally starting to show...
-One of the most important things to remember about the Roman Empire (at any point of its history) is that it had always had a serious problem with wealth inequality.
-Roman economic classes:
   -Slaves- how the empire was built!  Slaves were slaves just like in every other civilization in human history and also served as a status symbol for their masters' families.
      -The more slaves one owned, the better!  This was especially true with the super rich because they could afford to show off how many slaves they had by having a slave whose only job would be to perform some small, minor task for their masters... for example, while it would be possible for maybe one slave to perform 10 tasks, it was far better to have one slave designated to one task respectively in order to show off to the other wealthy families.
         -Slave-owners rarely went out in public without their slaves.  In cities, slaves were essentially treated like pets by their masters (which, as we know, can be either good or bad).  In the countryside, slaves were essentially treated like pack animals, working on farms which produced typical Roman cash crops like barley, wheat, millet, and grapes (which was the base of the average Roman diet). 
            -In fact, small farms eventually became increasingly rare over time as giant estates swallowed up more and more land, and many farmers or rural-based slaves ended up being tenant farmers on these huge farms.
               -It's worth noting that these mega-farms were one of the few exports that the empire produced that generated any serious income, as Rome was like an all-consuming black hole (in terms of consuming more than producing) that thrived off of war and conquest and not so much profitable trade.
                  -The typical Roman citizen was no longer a humble farmer (and soldier) with their own small plot of land- the vast majority had shifted towards working on someone else's land.  Most people during this time still would not travel very far from where they were born, and would most likely not ever visit the nearest provincial city (let alone Rome itself!).
            -While it was legal (I guess?) for slave-owners to mistreat their slaves, this was generally considered quite taboo by society (just like how we would look down on people who mistreat their pets in today's society).
      -Also, unlike a lot of other slave systems in other civilizations, slaves had the opportunity to either by their freedom or be set free (if they worked hard enough or established a strong bond with their masters). 
         -Freeing slaves actually became such an issue for the government that Augustus actually had to make laws which restricted how slaves could be freed (slaves could only be freed after the age of 30; masters could only free 100 (per 500) slaves at a time; etc.).
         -In fact, just like hoarding slaves was seen as a status symbol, so was freeing slaves!  Having the power to bestow freedom on another human being was seen as a major virtue during this time, so rich slave-owners often freed their slaves (I guess this would be like rich people giving to charity or engaging in philanthropic and/or humanitarian efforts nowadays?).
      -That being said, there was still an infinitesimally small minority of slaves that went on to achieve wealth and power, but this was rare. 
      -It's been estimated that the slave population made up about 1/3 of the entire population of the Roman Empire. 
      -Slaves were usually prisoners of war from Roman conquests, but Roman citizens also had the option if selling their own children into slavery if they were desperate enough (and/or just really shitty people).  Additionally, some people were born slaves if their mother was a slave, although this didn't happen that often because most slaves probably knew that it would be a shitty thing to do to their children.
         -Selling one's own children had become less and less common by the time of the emperors, but it would still happen occasionally!
         -Thus, slave traders grew quite rich from Rome's constant invasions of foreign lands, although the slave trade would reach its peak during the time of Trajan (due to the empire still expanding at that time).  After Trajan, the slave trade sharply declined overall due to the lack of newly-enslaved conquered people.
   -Freedmen- the practice of freeing a slave eventually became so common that an entirely new social class of freed slaves emerged.
      -While freedmen still weren't considered full citizens of the empire, they did still enjoy some privileges that were denied to regular slaves. 
         -However, it's worth noting that up until the reign of Claudius, freedmen were restricted in the kind of jobs they could have in society; Claudius would eventually strike down these restrictions and allow for freemen to have the opportunity to have any kind of job. 
            -Why did Claudius do this?  It's possible that he may have wanted to be nice to freedmen, but it's also likely that he wanted an excuse to be able to stock the government bureaucracy with a bunch of educated freedmen who would be efficient and competent without all of the drama and baggage that would come with appointing regular rich dudes for those same positions.  Smart!
               -Unfortunately, this also kind of backfired once regular citizens started to see how much power these freedmen were able to have, so they began to protest for reform.  This allowed for Domitian to take the opportunity to stock HIS government bureaucracy with equestrians. 
                  -Why did Domitian do this?  It's possible that he wanted to get in tight with the middle class (elites hated Domitian) whom had been marginalized by the senatorial class, but also he may have wanted to crack down on all of the corruption which had resulted from Claudius' freedmen bureaucrats amassing so much power so quickly in the government.
                     -Apparently, this seemed to work rather well for everyone overall, and the emperors after Domitian continued this trend of appointing equestrians to government positions for some time.
         -Of course, freedmen were also kind of looked down upon by Roman society as a whole, but this didn't stop freedmen from occasionally acquiring a considerable amount of wealth and power.  Also, freedmen's kids weren't considered to be slaves or freedmen, but
         -Freedmen were still obligated to have a patron-client relationship with their former masters, however.  This allowed for former masters to still retain their prestige that otherwise would have been lost when they freed their slaves- hoarding clients was also a status symbol as well for rich Roman families!
   -Poor people (vast majority of the common folk).
   -Lower middle-class- 10x smaller than the poors (in terms of size), but 10x richer.
      -However, the lower middle-class struggled just like the poor because they didn't qualify for state welfare!
   -Upper middle-class (equestrians)- lived comfortably, but nowhere near as rich as the senatorial class.
   -Aristocrats (senatorial class)- rich people.
   -Ludicrously rich- the richest of the rich (a handful of senators) who really called the shots in the empire (besides the emperor, of course).
   -The emperor- the richest person in the entire empire BY FAR (which also allowed him to have the most power).  This was what really allowed for the emperor to act with impunity, especially since it was money that controlled the legions.  As long as the legions were happy, the emperor could rest easy.
      -The emperor would become rich by either just straight-up taking whatever he wanted (usually off the books), but also would issue leases for imperial holdings and shit like that.
-Thus, most people living in the Roman Empire were stuck between the poor (no power) and the super rich (most of the power).  Even the richest of the rich weren't safe from the whims of the emperor.
   -For example, Nero one time just straight-up executed six rich dudes who owned like half of the province of Africa and then just confiscated their land for himself!
-While most rural-based Romans worked agricultural jobs, urban-based Romans worked a wide variety of jobs (just like how it's always been throughout human history) such as importers, exporters, wholesalers, bankers, cooks, retailers, innkeepers, masons, druggists, potters, tanners, jewelers, teachers, actors, etc.
   -However, unfortunately there massive amounts of city-dwellers who were actually unemployed and lived on the dole (typically free grain and games provided by the government) while working odd jobs.
      -An important note is that living on the dole still wasn't enough to support a family, as the grain provided was only enough for one person (usually the working male of the household).
      -Also, members of the lower-middle class didn't qualify for the dole, so life was hard for them too because they didn't have very much money but also didn't benefit from any government assistance!             -Even equestrians struggled sometimes! 
      -Thus, because everyone from the poor to the equestrians were struggling (to varying degrees, of course), something had to be done in order to retain some sort of balance or else the whole system would quickly fall apart.
         -Enter: the patron-client system!
            -During the days of the republic the patron-client system was mainly used by politicians hoping to gain political power and influence among the masses in exchange for votes, but obviously after Augustus took power and the republic collapsed there was no need for politicians to do this because emperors called all the shots after this. 
            -So, after the fall of the republic the patron-client system returned, but this version had evolved so that it acted as an alternate version of the dole.
               -Clients would visit their patrons in order to pay respect, and in return the patrons would give their clients a bit of money.  This in turn became the most common way for working class families to survive if they couldn't survive on the dole (or otherwise couldn't qualify for it to begin with).
                  -Truly desperate (or lazy haha) clients would have multiple patrons whom they would visit throughout the day, every day, in order to get a few coins that would allow them and their families to live on those small earnings for the day.