Tiberius Gracchus reproduced almost exactly the Licinian law. (11) The father of a family could retain, this time on a completetitle, 500 jugera of public land; with half that amount in addition for each son. For the lands which he had to restore, hereceived an indemnity proportional to the improvements he had executed. The lands taken back by the State were to bedistributed among the poorer citizens, who were already forbidden to alienate their share. The law was passed, but itsexecution was, in great measure, eluded. Caius revived it with the same result. It was almost impossible for the State torecover possession of lands which had been occupied for so long as to be indistinguishable from private property. It couldonly have done so successfully by a great effort based on some secure support. It is well known with what skill thepatricians, using fraud and violence by turns, managed to rid themselves of the Gracchi, the greatest citizens and mostclear-sighted statesmen that Rome produced.
But, for the salvation of Rome, an agrarian law was not sufficient. It required a series of such measures and a consistentpolicy, having in view the suppression of large properties, and the re-constitution of small ones. Unfortunately, freshconquests were continually putting new lands, and slaves for the cultivation of them, at the disposal of the rich; andconsequently it was impossible to stop the growth of latifundia .
After the death of the Gracchi, the higher classes succeeded in passing three agrarian laws, between the years 121 and 100B.C., which Appian makes known to us. All three were intended to beand were effectuallyfavourable to the increase oflarge estates. The first, contrary to the laws of the Gracchi, allowed every one to sell the portion of land which he hadreceived. The result was that the poor sold their shares, which they often did not know what to do with; and the richgradually monopolised the whole of the ager publicus . The second law forbade any new division of the public land. It was toremain in the hands of its present holders, a rent being paid by them, the amount of which was to be distributed among thecitizens. The latter, therefore, received in the place of the land which would have compelled them to labour, an allowance inmoney, which induced them to remain idle and live at the expense of the public treasury. Finally, the third law abolished eventhe rent; so that there remained nothing of the laws of the Gracchi but a single clause, favourable to the aristocracy, whichgave a definite title to the possession of public land. Independently of these agrarian laws, an attempt was made tore-establish the class of proprietors by settling citizens and soldiers on the conquered lands. In 422 B.C. when a colony wasfounded at Labici in Latium, 1,500 plebeians, fathers of families, were sent out, and each obtained the bina jugera (Liv. iv.
47, 5). Eighty-nine years later, 300 colonists sent to Terracina receive similar lots (Liv. VIII 21, 11): and the maxim isproclaimed that lots of two jugera each are to be given to plebeians in all conquered lands. (12) In 369 B.C., 2,000 colonistsestablished at Satricum in Latium obtain 2?jugera apiece (Liv. vi. 16, 6); in 359 B.C., 3,000 colonists sent to the Volsciancountry receive 3 7/10 jugera (Liv. v. 24, 4); and after the victory of Veii, which doubled the territory of Rome, the Senateallotted to every colonist 7 jugera (Liv. V. 30, 8). Pliny tells us that the consul, Manius Curius, after his victory over theSamnites, accused every one who was not content with seven jugera as being a dangerous citizen: perniciosum intelligicivem, cui septern jugera non essent satis ( Hist. Nat . xviii. 4). In 200 B.C., after the return of Scipio from the conquest ofCarthage, lands were distributed among the soldiers.
The tribune Apulcius Saturninus, in the year 100 B.C., passed a law which gave to the Roman citizens the lands of CisalpineGaul, reconquered from the Cimbri. He also pro. mised 100 jugera of land in Africa to the veterans of Marius. This law,however, seems to have been never carried into execution. Marius contented himself with giving 14 jugera to his soldiers,saying: "Please God, there be no Roman, who finds a portion of earth, sufficient for his sustenance, too small for him."In the year 65, the tribune Servius Rullus proposed a new agrarian law, which M. Antonin Macé ( Hist. des lois agraires )characterises as just and well framed.
Rullus endeavoured to reconstitute the public domain, without having recourse to confiscation. For this purpose, heproposed to sell the lands conquered in Asia, Africa, and Greece, and with the produce to purchase lands in Italy fordistribution among the citizens. Cicero attacked this scheme in the speeches which have come down to us, and which aremasterpieces of eloquence. The people themselves were induced by them to reject the rogatio , or bill, advocated by Rullus.
Three years afterwards, Cicero supported the agrarian law proposed by Flavius. Its object was to purchase lands, andestablish colonies on them, but it was not passed.
Caesar revived the ideas of Rullus and the Gracchi. As Dio Cassius tells us, he wished to restore agriculture; to repeople thewastes made in Italy by the latifundia ; to take from Rome the idle and starving proletarians, by giving them land to cultivate;and to arrest depopulation, by re-forming fresh families of peasant proprietors. With this object, he introduced a law whichdistributed the public domainespecially that in Campania hitherto let on farmamong all poor citizens with three or morechildren.
