<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> In the Roman Kingdom and the early Roman Republic the most important division in Roman society was between the patricians and the plebeians . The patricians were a small elite whose ancestry was traced to the first Senate established by Romulus, who monopolised political power . The plebeians comprised the majority of Roman citizens (see below). Adult males who were not Roman citizens, whether free or slave, fall outside this division . Women and children were also not citizens, but took the social status of their father or husband, which granted them various rights and protections not available to the women and children of men of lower rank . </P> <P> The common assumptions that the patricians and the Roman elite were one and the same throughout the history of ancient Rome, and that all plebeians were of non-elite status throughout the history of ancient Rome, are entirely incorrect . From the Late Republic era onward many members of the elite, including an increasing proportion of senators, came from plebeian families . The first Roman Emperor, Augustus, was of plebeian origin, as were many of his successors . By the Late Empire, few members of the Senate were from the original patrician families, most of which had died out . Rome continued to have a hierarchical class system, but it was no longer dominated by the distinction between patricians and plebeians . </P>

Who occupied the highest social class in rome