The real power controlling both the Patricians and the Plebeians was the Roman Censor.
The Censor performed the duties of the Public Administrator for the Empire. They had the power to control the populace through the census, taxation, and their total authority over the Roman justice system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_censor
The census was first instituted by Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome, c. 575–535 BC. After the abolition of the monarchy and the founding of the Republic in 509 BC, the consuls had responsibility for the census until 443 BC.[citation needed] In 442 BC, no consuls were elected, but tribunes with consular power were appointed instead. This was a move by the plebeians to try to attain higher magistracies:[citation needed] only patricians could be elected consuls, while some military tribunes were plebeians. To prevent the possibility of plebeians obtaining control of the census, the patricians removed the right to take the census from the consuls and tribunes, and appointed for this duty two magistrates, called censores (censors), elected exclusively from the patricians in Rome
The duties of the censors may be divided into three classes, all of which were closely connected with one another:
The Census, or register of the citizens and of their property, in which were included the reading of the Senate's lists (lectio senatus) and the recognition of who qualified for equestrian rank (recognitio equitum);
The Regimen Morum, or keeping of the public morals; and
The administration of the finances of the state, under which were classed the superintendence of the public buildings and the erection of all new public works.[33]
The original business of the censorship was at first of a much more limited kind, and was restricted almost entirely to taking the census,[34] but the possession of this power gradually brought with it fresh power and new duties, as is shown below. A general view of these duties is briefly expressed in the following passage of Cicero:
"The Censors are to determine the generations, origins, families, and properties of the people; they are to (watch over/protect) the city's temples, roads, waters, treasury, and taxes; they are to divide the people into three parts; next, they are to (allow/approve) the properties, generations, and ranks [of the people]; they are to describe the offspring of knights and footsoldiers; they are to forbid being unmarried; they are to guide the behavior of the people; they are not to overlook abuse in the Senate."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_censor