The citizens of Rome were divided into two classes: patricians, the elite class who ruled Roman society, and plebeians, the common people. One element of the patricians' elite status was that a group of patrician men called pontiffs were the ones who made decisions and ruled in questions of customary law. Over time, plebeians came to see that because of the disparity between their positions, patricians tended to have some advantage in the legal decisions made by the pontiffs who were their equals in status and power, and dissatisfaction grew with what many perceived to be the arbitrariness of the decisions made. This dissatisfaction arose during a period in the early Republic of intense conflict within the social order, as plebeians agitated to gain more political and social equality and patricians attempted to keep a tight hold on their own power. The plebeians pressed for the law to be written down, so that they might better anticipate the decisions made by the patrician pontiffs and understand their basis in the established law.