[192] They were a despised and abject class, who lived like beasts outside the proper boundary of the city.

The touch of the plebeian was impure.

[193] "When tribunes were created a special law was necessary to protect their life and liberty, and it was promulgated as follows: 'It is forbidden to strike or kill a tribune, as if he was an ordinary plebeian.' It would appear then that a patrician had the right to strike or kill an ordinary plebeian, or at least that he was amenable to no legal punishment for doing so." [194] Similarly in the ancient Greek cities the citizens were known as >agajo'i or good, and the plebeians as kako'i or bad.

This latter class is described by the poet Theognis as having had aforetime neither tribunals nor laws; they were not allowed even to enter the town, but lived outside like wild beasts.

They had no part in the religious feasts and could not intermarry with the proper citizens.