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18]
After Gracchus was slain Appius Claudius died, and Fulvius Flaccus and
Papirius Carbo were appointed, in conjunction with the younger Gracchus, to
divide the land. As the persons in possession neglected to hand in lists of
their holdings, a proclamation was issued that informers should furnish
testimony against them. Immediately a great number of embarrassing lawsuits
sprang up. Wherever a new field had been bought adjoining an old one, or
wherever a division of land had been made with allies, the whole district
had to be carefully inquired into on account of the measurement of this one
field, to discover how it had been sold and how divided. Not all owners had
preserved their contracts, or their allotment titles, and even those that
were found were often ambiguous. When the land was resurveyed some owners
were obliged to give up their fruit-trees and farm-buildings in exchange for
naked ground. Others were transferred from cultivated to uncultivated lands,
or to swamps, or pools. In fact, the measuring had not been carefully done
when the land was first taken from the enemy. As the original proclamation
authorized anybody to work the undistributed land who wished to do so, many
had been prompted to cultivate the parts immediately adjoining their own,
till the line of demarkation
between them had faded from
view. The progress of time also made many changes. Thus the injustice done
by the rich, although great, was not easy of ascertainment. So there was
nothing but a general turn-about, all parties being moved out of their own
places and settled down in other people's.
