CHAPTER I
The Roman Public Domain -- The Licinian Law--The Agrarian Law of Tiberius
Gracchus--Struggle over its Enactment--Public Harangue of Gracchus--The
Tribune Octavius vetoes the Bill--Gracchus deposes him--The Bill
passed
[
7]
The Romans, as they subdued the Italian nations successively in war, seized a
part of their lands and built towns there, or established their own colonies
in those already existing, and used them in place of garrisons. Of the land
acquired by war they assigned the cultivated part forthwith to settlers, or
leased or sold it. Since they had no leisure as yet to allot the part which
then lay desolated by war (this was generally the greater part), they made
proclamation that in the meantime those who were willing to work it might do
so for a share of the yearly crops a tenth of the grain and a fifth of the
fruit. From those who kept flocks was required a share of the animals, both
oxen and small cattle. They did these things in order to multiply the
Italian race, which they considered the most laborious of peoples, so that
they might have plenty of allies at home. But the very opposite thing
happened; for the rich, getting possession of the greater part of the
undistributed lands, and being emboldened by the lapse of time to believe
that they would never be dispossessed, and adding to their holdings the
small farms of their poor neighbors, partly by purchase and partly by force,
came to cultivate vast tracts instead of single estates, using for this
purpose slaves as laborers and herdsmen, lest free laborers should be drawn
from agriculture into the army. The ownership of slaves itself brought them
great gain from the multitude of their progeny, who increased because they
were exempt from military service. Thus the powerful ones became enormously
rich and the race of slaves multiplied throughout the country, while the
Italian people dwindled in numbers and strength, being oppressed by penury,
taxes, and military service. If they had any respite from these evils they
passed their time in idleness, because the land was held by the rich, who
employed slaves instead of freemen as cultivators.
[
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.
[
9]
At length Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, an illustrious man, eager for glory,
a most powerful speaker, and for these reasons well known to all, delivered
an eloquent discourse, while serving as tribune, concerning the Italian
race, lamenting that a people so valiant in war, and blood relations to the
Romans, were declining little by little in pauperism and paucity of numbers
without any hope of remedy. He inveighed against the multitude of slaves as
useless in war and never faithful to their masters, and adduced the recent
calamity brought upon the masters by their slaves in
Sicily, where the demands of agriculture
had greatly increased the number of the latter; recalling also the war waged
against them by the Romans, which was neither easy nor short, but
long-protracted and full of vicissitudes
and dangers.
After speaking thus he again brought forward the law, providing that nobody
should hold more than 500 jugera of the public domain. But he added a
provision to the former law, that the sons of the present occupiers might
each hold one-half of that amount, and that the remainder should be divided
among the poor by triumvirs, who should be changed annually.
[
10]
This was extremely disturbing to the rich because, on account of the
triumvirs, they could no longer disregard the law as they had done before;
nor could they buy the allotments of others, because Gracchus had provided
against this by forbidding sales. They collected together in groups, and
made lamentation, and accused the poor of appropriating the results of their
tillage, their vineyards, and their dwellings. Some said that they had paid
the price of the land to their neighbors. Were they to lose the money with
the land? Others said that the graves of their ancestors were in the ground,
which had been allotted to them in the division of their fathers' estates.
Others said that their wives' dowries had been expended on the estates, or
that the land had been given to their own daughters as dowry. Money-lenders
could show loans made on this security. All kinds of wailing and expressions
of indignation were heard at once. On the other side were heard the
lamentations of the poor--that they had been reduced from competence to
extreme penury, and from that to childlessness, because they were unable to
rear their offspring. They recounted the military services they had
rendered, by which this very land had been acquired, and were angry that
they should be robbed of their share of the common property. They reproached
the rich for employing slaves, who were always faithless and ill-tempered
and for that reason unserviceable in war, instead of freemen, citizens, and
soldiers. While these classes were lamenting and indulging in mutual
accusations, a great number of others, composed of colonists, or inhabitants
of the free towns, or persons otherwise interested in the lands and who were
under like apprehensions, flocked in and took sides with their respective
factions. Emboldened by numbers and exasperated against each other they
attached themselves to turbulent crowds, and waited for the voting on the
new law, some trying to prevent its enactment by all means, and others
supporting it in every possible way. In addition to personal interest the
spirit of rivalry spurred both sides in the preparations they were making
against each other for the day of the comitia.
[
11]
What Gracchus had in his mind in proposing the measure was not wealth, but an
increase of efficient population. Inspired greatly by the usefulness of the
work, and believing that nothing more advantageous or admirable could ever
happen to
Italy, he took no account
of the difficulties surrounding it. When the time for voting came he
advanced many other arguments at considerable length and also asked them
whether it was not just to divide among the common people what belonged to
them in common; whether a citizen was not worthy of more consideration at
all times than a slave; whether a man who served in the army was not more
useful than one who did not; and whether one who had a share in the country
was not more likely to be devoted to the public interests. He did not dwell
long on this comparison between freemen and slaves, which he considered
degrading, but proceeded at once to a review of their hopes and fears for
the country, saying that the Romans had acquired most of their territory by
conquest, and that they had hopes of occupying the rest of the habitable
world, but now the question of greatest hazard was, whether they should gain
the rest by having plenty of brave men, or whether, through their weakness
and mutual jealousy, their enemies should take away what they already
possessed. After exaggerating the glory and riches on the one side and the
danger and fear on the other, he admonished the rich to take heed, and said
that for the realization of these, hopes they ought to bestow this very land
as a free gift, if necessary, on men who would rear children, and not, by
contending about small things, overlook larger ones; especially since they
were receiving an ample compensation for labor expended in the undisputed
title to 500 jugera each of free land, in a high state of cultivation,
without cost, and half as much more for each son of those who had sons.
After saying much more to the same purport and exciting the poor, as well as
others who were moved by reason rather than by the desire for gain, he
ordered the scribe to read the proposed law.
[
12]
Marcus Octavius, another tribune, who had been induced by those in possession
of the lands to interpose his veto (for among the Romans the tribune's veto
always prevailed), ordered the scribe to keep silence. Thereupon Gracchus
reproached him severely and adjourned the comitia to the following day. Then
he stationed a sufficient guard, as if to force Octavius against his will,
and ordered the scribe with threats to read the proposed law to the
multitude. He began to read, but when Octavius again vetoed he stopped. Then
the tribunes fell to wrangling with each other, and a considerable tumult
arose among the people. The leading citizens besought the tribunes to submit
their controversy to the Senate for decision. Gracchus seized on the
suggestion, believing that the law was acceptable to all well-disposed
persons, and hastened to the senate-house. There, as he had only a few
followers and was upbraided by the rich, he ran back to the forum and said
that he would take the vote at the comitia of the following day, both on the
law and on the magistracy of Octavius, to determine whether a tribune who
was acting contrary to the people's interest could continue to hold his
office. And so he did, for when Octavius, nothing daunted, again interposed,
Gracchus distributed the pebbles to take a vote on him first. When the first
tribe voted to abrogate the magistracy of Octavius, Gracchus turned to him
and begged him to desist from this veto. As he would not yield, the votes of
the other tribes were taken. There were thirty-five tribes at that time. The
seventeen that voted first angrily sustained this motion. If the eighteenth
should do the same it would make a majority. Again did Gracchus, in the
sight of the people, urgently importune Octavius in his present extreme
danger not to prevent this most pious work, so useful to all
Italy, and not to frustrate the wishes so
earnestly entertained by the people, whose desires he ought rather to share
in his character of tribune, and not to risk the loss of his office by
public condemnation. After speaking thus he called the gods to witness that
he did not willingly do any despite to his colleague. As Octavius was still
unyielding he went on taking the vote. Octavius was forthwith reduced to the
rank of a private citizen and slunk away unobserved.
3
[
13]
Quintus Mummius was chosen tribune in his place, and the agrarian law was
enacted. The first triumvirs appointed to divide the land were Gracchus
himself, the proposer of the law, his brother of the same name, and his
father-in-law, Appius Claudius, since the people still feared that the law
might fail of execution unless Gracchus should be put in the lead with his
whole family. Gracchus became immensely popular by reason of the law and was
escorted home by the multitude as though he were the founder, not of a
single city or race, but of all the nations of
Italy. After, this the victorious party returned to the
fields from which they had come to attend to this business. The defeated
ones remained in the city and talked the matter over, feeling bitterly, and
saying that as soon as Gracchus should become a private citizen he would be
sorry that he had done despite to the sacred and inviolable office of
tribune, and had opened such a fountain of discord in
Italy.
