[
8]
For these reasons the people became troubled lest they should no longer have
sufficient allies of the Italian stock, and lest the government itself
should be endangered by such a vast number of slaves. Not perceiving any
remedy, as it was not easy, nor exactly just, to deprive men of so many
possessions they had held so long, including their own trees, buildings, and
fixtures, a law was once
passed with difficulty at the instance of the tribunes, that
nobody should hold more than 500 jugera of this
land,
1
or pasture on it more than 100 cattle or 500 sheep. To ensure the observance
of this law it was provided also that there should be a certain number of
freemen employed on the farms, whose business it should be to watch and
report what was going on.
2 Those who held possession of lands under the law
were required to take an oath to obey the law, and penalties were fixed for
violating it, and it was supposed that the remaining land would soon be
divided among the poor in small parcels. But there was not the smallest
consideration shown for the law or the oaths. The few who seemed to pay some
respect to them conveyed their lands to their relations fraudulently, but
the greater part disregarded it altogether.