-medimni- = 198,000 -modii- (Cic.  Verr. iii. 30, 72), only some 40,000 burgesses at that time received grain, whereas the number of burgesses domiciled in the capital was certainly far more considerable.  This arrangement probably proceeded from the Octavian law, which introduced instead of the extravagant Sempronian amount “a moderate largess, tolerable for the state and necessary for the common people” (Cic. de Off. ii. 21, 72, Brut. 62, 222); and to all appearance it is this very law that is the -lex frumentaria- mentioned by Licinianus.  That Lepidus should have entered into such a proposal of compromise, accords with his attitude as regards the restoration of the tribunate.  It is likewise in keeping with the circumstances that the democracy should find itself not at all satisfied by the regulation, brought about in this way, of the distribution of grain (Sallust, l. c.).  The amount of loss is calculated on the basis of the grain being worth at least double (iv.  III.  Alterations on the Constitution By Gaius Gracchus); when piracy or other causes drove up the price of grain, a far more considerable loss must have resulted.

20.  From the fragments of the account of Licinianus (p. 44, Bonn) it is plain that the decree of the senate, -uti Lepidus et Catulus decretis exercitibus maturrime proficiscerentur- (Sallust, Hist. i. 44 Dietsch), is to be understood not of a despatch of the consuls before the expiry of their consulship to their proconsular provinces, for which there would have been no reason, but of their being sent to Etruria against the revolted Faesulans, just as in the Catilinarian war the consul Gaius Antonius was despatched to the same quarter.  The statement of Philippus in Sallust (Hist. i. 48, 4) that Lepidus -ob seditionem provinciam cum exercitu adeptus est-, is entirely in harmony with this view; for the extraordinary consular command in Etruria was just as much a -provincia- as the ordinary proconsular command in Narbonese Gaul.

21.  III.  IV.  Hannibal’s Passage of the Alps

22.  In the recently found fragments of Sallust, which appear to belong to the campaign of 679, the following words relate to this incident:  -Romanus [exer]citus (of Pompeius) frumenti gra[tia r]emotus in Vascones i... [it]emque Sertorius mon... e, cuius multum in[terer]it, ne ei perinde Asiae [iter et Italiae intercluderetur].

Notes for Chapter II

1.  IV.  VIII.  New Difficulties

2.  IV.  VIII.  Preliminaries of Delium, iv.  VIII.  Peace at Dardanus

3.  IV.  IX.  Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates

4.  IV.  I. Cilicia

5.  IV.  I. Piracy

6.  IV.  I. Crete