[9]
For those farms in truth are
held by the best right, which are held on the best conditions. Free tenures are held by a
better tenure than servile ones. By this clause all tenures which have hitherto been servile
1
tenures will be so no longer. Enfranchised estates are in a better condition than those which
are liable to no obligations; by the same clause all lands subject to the payment of any
fine, if only they were assigned by Sulla, are released from such payments. Lands which are
exempt from payment are in a better condition than those which pay a fine. I, in my Tusculan
villa, must pay a tax for the Crabran 2 water, because I received my estate subject to this
liability; but, if I had only had the land given me by Sulla, I should not pay it, according
to the law of Rullus.
1 Serva praedia mean such estates as were liable to certain burdens or duties; held by the performance of certain services.
2 The Crabra aqua is several times mentioned by Cicero in his letters as a small artificial stream running through his Tusculan property. He even had a law-suit respecting it, as appears from one of his letters.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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