| 释义 |
‖ plebs|plɛbz|
[L. plēbs (earlier plēbēs).]
In ancient Rome, The commonalty, originally comprising all citizens that did not belong to one of the patrician gentes, to which privileged order were afterwards added the equites or knights.
1835Lytton Rienzi i. ii, All the insolent and unruly turbulence which characterised the Plebs of the Ancient Forum. 1845Graves Rom. Law in Encycl. Metrop. II. 756/1 There were several co-operating causes which..rendered the plebs anxious to obtain a body of revised and written laws. 1882Athenæum 21 Oct. 524/3 The two offices which by the close of the Republic had thrown all others into the background, those of the tribunes of the plebs in Rome and of the proconsuls in the provinces.
b. In transferred use, The common people; the populace, the mob. See also pleb A.
1647G. Daniel Poems Wks. (Grosart) II. 131 'Tis an Easier Thing To make Trees Leape, and Stones selfe-burthens bring..Then stop the giddie clamouring of Plebs [rime Thœbes]. 1866J. Martineau Ess. I. 132 We..take our place with the plebs who believe [etc.]. 1890Cincinnati Chr. Advocate 5 Feb. 10/2 Whether the plebs hoot or not. |