In ancient Rome, the plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census. From the 4th century BC or earlier, some of the most prominent and wealthy Roman families, as identified by their gens name, were of plebeian status (see Roman naming conventions).Literary references to the plebs, however, usually mean the ordinary citizens of Rome as a whole, as distinguished from the elite—a sense retained by "plebeian" in English.