[163] Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome, pref. to Virginia. Cp. Gibbon, Bohn ed. v, 80–81.
[164] Cp. Dureau de la Malle, Écon. polit. des Romains, vol. ii, liv. iv, ch. 9.
[165] Cp. Cicero, De Officiis, i, 42.
[166] Mommsen, B. i, ch. v. Eng. tr. i, 80.
[167] Pliny, Hist. Nat. xviii, 3
[168] E. Meyer (Geschichte des Alterthums, ii, 518), alleges a common misconception as to the ager publicus being made a subject of class strife; but does not make the matter at all clearer. Cp. Niebuhr, Lectures on the History of Rome, Eng. tr. 1-vol. ed. pp. 153–54, 407, 503.
[169] Shuckburgh, History of Rome, pp. 93, 94. Cp. Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, ch. xii, and Pelham, pp. 187–89, as to the frauds of the rich in the matter of the public lands.
[170] W.T. Arnold, Roman Provincial Administration, 1879, p. 26.
[171] Finlay, History of Greece, Tozer's ed. i, 39.
[172] When Julius Cæsar abolished the public revenue from the lands of Campania by dividing them among 20,000 colonists, the only Italian revenue left was the small duty on the sale of slaves (Cicero, Ep. ad Atticum, ii, 16).
[173] Ep. ad Atticum, iv, 15 (16).
[174] Cp. Niebuhr, Lectures on Roman History, Eng. tr. 1-vol. ed. pp. 227, 449; Gibbon, Bohn ed. iii, 404; v, 74–75.
[175] Orat. pro M. Fonteio, v. Cp. Long, in loc. (Orationes, 1855, ii, 167).
[176] Dr. Cunningham, preserving the conception of Rome as an entity with choice and volition, inclines to see a necessary self-protection in most Roman wars; yet his pages show clearly enough that the moneyed classes were the active power. He distinguishes (p. 161) "public neglect" (of conquered peoples) from "public oppression." But the public neglect was simply a matter of the control of the exploiting class, who were the effective "public" for foreign affairs. Compare his admissions as to their forcing of wars and their control of justice, pp. 163, 164.
[177] The fullest English account of the matter is given by Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, iv, 423–27, following Savigny. Cp. Plutarch's account of the doings of the publicani in Asia (Lucullus, cc. 7, 20). Lucullus gave deadly offence at Rome by his check on their extortions, as P. Rutilius Rufus had done before him (Pelham, Outlines of Roman History, 1893, pp. 198, 283; Ferrero, i, 183). The lowest rate of interest charged by the publicani seems to have been 12 per cent. (Niebuhr, Lectures, 1-vol. ed. p. 449). We shall find the same rates current in Renaissance Italy.
[178] Cp. R. Pöhlmann, Die Uebervölkerung der antiken Grossstädte, 1884, pp. 14–15, 29–30. Prof. Ferrero (Greatness and Decline of Rome, Eng. tr. i, 123–27; ii, 131–36) affirms a restoration of Italian "prosperity" from 80 B.C. onwards, by way first of a general cultivation of the vine and the olive by means of Oriental slaves used to such culture, and later of slave manufactures in the towns. But the evidence falls far short of the proposition. The main items are that about 52 B.C. Italy began to export olive oil, and that certain towns later won repute for pottery, textiles, arms, and so on. On the new agriculture cp. Dureau de la Malle, i, 426–27.
[179] W.W. Carlile, The Evolution of Modern Money, 1901, pp. 46, 48.
[180] Cp. M'Culloch, Essays and Treatises, 2nd ed. pp. 58–64, and refs.
[181] Cp. Hodgkin, The Dynasty of Theodosius, 1889, pp. 19–20. From Severus onwards the silver coinage had in fact become "mere billon money," mostly copper. Carlile, as cited.
[182] On this cp. Pöhlmann, Die Uebervölkerung der antiken Grossstädte, p.37, and Engel, as there cited.
[183] As to the probable nature of this much-discussed law see Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, i, chs. xi and xii. Cp. Niebuhr, Lect. 89.
[184] Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus, c. 8.
[185] As Long remarks (i, 171), it does not appear what Tiberius Gracchus proposed to do with the slaves when he had put freemen in their place. Cp. Cunningham, p. 150.
[186] Cp. Pelham, Outlines, pp. 191–92; Ferrero, ch. iii.
[187] Robiou et Delaunay, Les institutions de l'ancienne Rome, 1888, iii, 18.
[188] Cp. Juvenal, iii, 21 sq.; 162 sq.
[189] For the history of the practice, see the article "Frumentariae Leges," in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities.
[190] The first step by Gracchus does not seem to have been much resisted (Merivale, Fall of the Roman Republic, p. 22; but cp. Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, i, 262), such measures having been for various reasons resorted to at times in the past (Pliny, Hist. Nat. xviii, 1; Livy, ii, 34); but in the reaction which followed, the process was for a time restricted (Merivale, p. 34).
[191] It seems to have been he who, as consul, first caused the distribution to be made gratuitous. See Cicero, ad Attic. ii, 19, and De Domo Sua, cc. 10, 15. The Clodian law, making the distribution gratuitous, was passed next year.
[192] Suetonius, Julius, c. 41.