Most of Rome's common people faced poverty and harsh workingconditions. Most were farmers who tilled the land.In the early days, the tool used by the rich landowners to tiethe labour of poor peasants to their estates was debtbondage/slavery. The latter worked for the former because he waslocked into continually having to make repayments. Abuse ofdefaulting debtors by creditors who imprisoned them tortured themand sometimes sold them as slaves was a major grievance of thepoor. When Rome expanded into Italy, the supply of slaves increasedand slavery replaced debt bondage as the main source of labour.Another problem in early Rome was the fact that poor peasantshad plots of land which were too small to make a decent livingbecause the rich landowners appropriated most of the land. Thisproblem was relieved by the expansion of Rome into Italy assettlements where peasants were given plots of land were createdaround Italy. The problems reemerged as peasants lost their landdue to war during Hannibal's invasion of Italy. They migrated toRome and swelled the mass of urban unemployed.The poor plebeians (commoners) created the plebeian movementwhich fought for reforms through direct action. Their main demandswere protection for debt defaulters, reduction of loan interestrates and land redistribution. Rich plebeians were the leaders ofthe movement and used this to demand power sharing with thepatrician aristocracy and were successful. Once they obtained this,they turned their backs on the poor.