[Footnote 26:  Wordsworth, 447.  See the text of this law in C.I.L., vol.  I, pp. 79-80.]

[Footnote 27:  Long, I, 359.]

[Footnote 28:  “Quom quis ceivis Romanus agri colendi causa in eum agrum agri jugera non amplius xxx possidebit habebitue, is ager privatus esto.”]

[Footnote 29:  Long, loc. cit.; Wordsworth, 446.]

[Footnote 30:  Digby, History of the Law of Real Property in England, p. 157.]

[Footnote 31:  Long, I, 357.]

[Footnote 32:  Appian, I, c. 27.]

[Footnote 33:  Long, loc. cit.; Ihne, loc. cit.]

[Footnote 34:  Ihne, loc. cit.; Long, loc. cit.]

[Footnote 35:  Momm., loc. cit.]

SEC. 14.—­AGRARIAN MOVEMENTS BETWEEN 111 AND 86.

In the year following the enactment of the lex Thoria, or, by some other authorities, in 105, an agrarian law was proposed by a tribune named Marcus Philippus.  Cicero is the only writer who mentions it, and he has given us no information concerning its tendency and dispositions.  We only know from him that it was rejected.[1] Probably the whole thing was merely a political ruse in order to gain an election or to be handsomely bought off by the nobility.  It, however, presents one point of interest to us.  The introduction of the bill was preceded by a speech, in which the tribune, in justifying his undertaking, affirmed that there were not two thousand citizens who had wealth.  Cicero has made no attempt to refute this, and must, therefore, have judged it true.  It reveals the fact that Rome was in a deplorable condition.

In chronological order the first agrarian law after the vain attempt of Philippus was that of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus.  In the year 100, he brought forward a bill for the distribution of land in Africa[2] to the soldiers of Marius.  Each soldier was to receive one hundred jugera of land.  No distinction was to be made between Roman and Latin.  This bill received the sanction of the assembly and became a law, but force was the chief instrumentality in bringing this about.  This law, so far as can be ascertained, was never enforced, so that when the same man, three years later, brought forward another agrarian bill, he took the precaution to add a clause binding every senator, under heavy penalty, to confirm the law by the most solemn oath.[3] The first law was enacted in order to provide the soldiers of Marius with suitable farms when they returned from the campaign in Numidia.  The author doubtless acted with the aid and hearty cooeperation of Marius.  When Saturninus brought forward his second bill, Marius[4] had returned from the north as the hero of Aquae Sextiae and was present to help.  The nobility as one man opposed the scheme; the town-people were the clients of the rich.  If Marius[5] and Saturninus were to succeed, it must be by the aid of the country burgess and the soldier.