In the year am. 91 the tribune Marcus Livius Drusus the younger, the stn of the Drusus who had opposed Caius Graechus, endeavoured to gain the favour of the plebes by the proposal of laws to the same purport as those of the Gracchi, and the favour of the Socii, or Italian allies, by proposing to give them the full rights of Roman citizens. " His own words," says Floras 17), "are extant, in which he declared that he had left nothing for any one else to give, unless a man should choose to divide the mud or the skies." Drusus agitated at the instigation of the nobles, who wished to depress the eques trian body, which had become powerful ; but his Agrarian profusion, which was intended to gain the favour of the plebes, affected the interests of the Socir, who occupied public land in various parts of Italy, and accordingly they were to be bought over by the grant of the Roman citizenship. Drusus lost his life in the troubles that followed the passing of his Agrarian law, and the Sod', whose hopes of the citizenship were balked, broke out in that dangerous insurrection called the Marsic or Social War, which threat ened Rome with destruction, and the danger of which was only averted by conceding, by a Lex Julia, what the allies demanded (B.e. 90). The laws of Drusus were declared void, after his death, for some informality.
The proposed Agrarian law of the tri bune P. Servilius Mins, in B.e. 63, the year of Cicero's consulship, was the most sweeping Agrarian law ever proposed at Rome. Ruling proposed to appoint ten persons with power to sell everything that belonged to the state, both in Italy and out of Italy, the domains of the kings of Macedonia and Pergamus, lands in Asia, Egypt, the province of Africa, in a word everything; even the territory of Capua was included. The territory of Capua was at that time occupied and cul tivated by Roman plebeians (colitur et pouidetur), an industrious class of good husbandmen and good soldiers: the pro.
posed measure of Rullus would have turned them all out ; there was not here, says Cicero (ii. 30), the pretext that the public lands were lying waste and unpro ductive; they were in fact occupied pro fitably by the possessors, and profitably to the state, which derived a revenue from the rents. The ten persons (decemviri) were to have full power for five years to sell all that belonged to the State, and to decide without appeal on all cases in which the title of private land should be called in question. With the money thus raised it was proposed to buy lands in Italy on which the poor were to be settled, and the decemviri were to be empowered to found colonies where they pleased. This extravagant proposal was defeated by Cicero, to whose three ora tions against Rullus we owe our informa tion about this measure.
In the year s.c. 60 the tribune Flavius brought forward an Agrarian law, at the instigation of Pompey, who had just re turned from Asia, and wished to distri bute lauds among his soldiers. Cicero, in a letter to Atticus (i. 19), speaks at some length of this measure, to which he was not entirely opposed, but he proposed to limit it in such a way as to prevent many persons from being disturbed in their property, who, without such pre caution, would have been exposed to vexatious inquiries and loss. He says, "One part of the law I made no oppo sition to, which was this, that land should be bought with the money to arise for the next five years from the new sources of revenue (acquired by Pompey's con quest of Asia). The senate opposed the whole of this Agrarian measure from sus picion that the object was to give Pompey some additional power, for he had shown a great eagerness for the passing of the law. I proposed to confirm all private persons in their possessions ; and this I did without offending those who were to be benefited by the law ; and I satisfied the people and Pompey, for I wished to do that too, by supporting the measure for buy ing lands. This measure, if properly car
ried into effect, seemed to use well adapted to clear the city of the dregs of the popu lace, and to people the wastes of Italy." A disturbance in Gallia Cisalpina stopped this measure ; but it was reproduced, as amended by Cicero, by C. Julius Cesar, who was consul in the following year, s.c. 59. The measure was opposed by the senate, on which Caesar went further than he at first intended, and included the Stellatis Ager and Campanian land in his law. This fertile tract was distributed among twenty thousand citizens who had the qualification which the law required, of three children or more. Cicero ob serves (Ad Attic. ii. 16), " That after the distribution of the Campanian lands and the abolition of the customs' duties (por toria), there was no revenue left that the State could raise in Italy, except the twentieth which came from the sale and manumission of slaves." After the death of Julius Cwsar, his great nephew Octa vianus, at his own cost and without any authority, raised an army from these settlers at Capua and the neighbouring colonies of Casilinum and Calatia, which enabled him to exact from the senate a confirmation of this illegal proceeding, and a commission to prosecute the war against Marcus Antonius. Those who had received lands by the law of the uncle supported the nephew in his am bitious designs, and thus the settlement of the Campanian territory prepared the way for the final abolition of the re public. (Compare Dion. Cassius, xxxviii. 1-7, and xlv. 12.) The character of the Roman Agrarian laws may be collected from this sketch. They had two objects : one was to limit the amount of Public land which an in dividual could enjoy ; the other was to distribute public land from time to time among the plebes and veteran soldiers. A recent writer, the author of a useful work (Dureau de la Malle, Economic Politique des Remains), affirms that the Licinian laws limited private property to five hundred jugera ; and he affirms that the law of Tiberius Gracchus was a restoration of the Licinian law in this respect (ii. 280, 282). On this mistake he builds a theory, that the law of Lici nius and of Tiberius Gracchus had for their " object to maintain equality of for tunes and to create the legal right of all to attain to office, which is the funda mental basis of democratic government." His examination of this part of the subject is too superficial to require a formal con futation, which would be out of place here. But another writer already quoted (Rudorff, Zeitschrift fir Geschichtliche Rechtswissenschaft, x. 28) seems to think also that the Licinian maximum of five hundred jugera applied to private land, and that this maximum of five hundred jugera was applied by Tiberius Gracchus to the Public land. Livy (vi. 35), in speaking of the law of Licinius Stoic, says merely " Nequis plus qningenta jugera agri peso deret ," bat, as Niebuhr observes, the word "possideret " shows the nature of the land without the addition of the word Public. And if any dne doubts the meaning of Livy, he may satisfy himself what it is by a comparison of the following pas sages (ii. 41 ; vi. 4, 5, 14, 16, 36, 37, 39, 41). The evidence derived from other sources confirms this interpretation of Livy's meaning. That the law of Grac chus merely limited the amount of Public land which a man might occupy, is, so far as we know, now admitted by everybody except Duman de la Malle ; but a pas sage in Cicero (Against Rullus, ii. 5), which he has referred to himself in giving an account of the proposed law of Rullus, is decisive of Cicero's opinion on the matter ; not that Cicero's opinion is ne cessary to show that the laws of Gracchus only affected Public land, but his autho rity has great weight with some people.