They had also the right to depasture their cattle on the public pasturage ( pascua publica ) on paying to the treasury a rent,from which they soon freed themselves. The plebeians, like the hintersassen of the Germanic mark had no right of occupancyover the public domain. From time to time, however, lands were distributed among them, and their lots seem to have beenordinarily about 7 jugera in extent. (8) The plebeian lot was greater than the patrician heredium because it had to suffice forthe maintenance of a family, whereas the bina jugera merely comprised the hof or dwelling-house and its accessories, thearable land and pasturage being taken from the ager publicus . As in early times agricultural labour is the sole source ofwealth, every free man must have a portion of land to be able to subsist. Hence, in default of the periodic partition whichmaintained equality in the German and Slavonic commune, it was constantly necessary at Rome to have recourse todistributions of land which the plebeians never succeeded in retaining. According to the traditions collected by historians,there was a division of the soil made by Romulus. He divided the territory among the three tribes. Each tribe was dividedinto curiae, and each curia into centuries. The century, like the Anglo-Saxon hundred, contained a hundred warriors orheads of families, and each of them had a private domain of two acres. This was, according to tradition, the quantity allottedto each citizen by Romulus. Dionysius adds, that Romulus reserved a portion sufficient for the maintenance of religiousworship, and that another portion remained the domain of the State. This last portion was far the largest. Kuma, TullusHostilius, Ancus Martius made distributions of land viritim according to Cicero, that is, in equal shares per head. Viritanusager dicitur, says Festus, qui viritim populo distribuitur . Servius Tullius orders all those who have taken possession ofpublic lands to restore. them; and gives those who have no land seven jugera , in order, as he tells us in the speech attributedto him by Dionysius, that the plebeians might no longer cultivate the lands of other people, but their own, and might be somade more courageous in the defence of their country. Under the Republic there are constant efforts to keep the land in thehands of the plebeians. In 404 B.C. Spurius Cassius proposes to distribute among them the conquered lands of theHernicans; but he lost his life for this proposition, which Livy calls the first agrarian law: Tum primum lex agrariapromulgata est (II. 41). (9) Some years later, the tribune Icilius effected the partition of the lands of the Aventine ( Lex Iciliade Aventino publicaudo ). During the century which elapsed between Spurius Cassius and Licinius Stolo, M. Antonin Macéreckons twenty-eight bills ( rogationes ) of the tribunes to obtain an assignment of lands in favour of the plebs. The patricians,however, defeated them, or else rendered them ineffectual. The continual wars tended more and more to the ruin of thesmall proprietors, and at the same time tended to favour the accumulation of land and wealth, by increasing the extent ofland taken from the enemy, which the patricians took possession of and cultivated by the labour of the conqueredinhabitants, who were reduced to slavery. The famous Licinian laws were intended to limit the advance of inequality, bychecking the diminution in the number of freemen which had become alarming. The Lex Licinia forbade any one to possessmore than 500 jugera of public land: ne quis plus quam quingenta jugera agri possideret , are the words of Livy (vi. 35).
The Greek historian, Appian, gives the other clauses of the law: "No one shall depasture on the ager publicus more than ahundred head of large cattle, or more than five hundred sheep on his own land. Every one shall support a certain number offree men. The portion of the public land taken from those who have more than 500 jugera , shall be distributed among thepoor." The Republic was saved for a time by the better distribution of the soil, which increased the number of freeproprietors and of soldiers. Historians are unanimous in commending the good effects of the Licinian laws. "The centurywhich follows the Licinian laws," says M. Laboulaye, "is the one in which the soldiers of Rome seem inexhaustible. Varro,Pliny, and Columella continually refer to these great days of the Republic, as the time when Italy was realty powerful by therichness of its soil, and the number and prosperity of its inhabitants. The law of the five hundred jugera is always quoted bythem with admiration, as being the first which recognized the evil, and sought to remedy it by retarding the formation ofthose vast domains, or latifundia , which depopulated Italy, and after Italy the whole empire." ( Des lois agraires chez lesRomaines .) Unfortunately, after the conquest of Macedonia, the clauses of the Licinian law were no longer enforced.
Shortly after the first Punic war, the tribune C. Flamunius demanded the distribution of the lands recently taken from theGauls, to relieve the misery of the plebs, which had again become excessive. The small proprietors had disappeared, andtheir property had gone to swell the latifundia .
In the country, free men were no longer employed for the cultivation of the soil. In consequence of the foreign wars, slaveswere sold at a low-price, and free men could not compete with them. The latter lived in idleness on distributions of corn, andmade a traffic of their votes or their evidence. Pasturage replaced agriculture, (10) and Sicily and Africa were made to providethe corn supply as their tribute.
