http://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/acilian_law.asp
Purpose of the Document: This legal document basically highlights how Roman lawmakers had become concerned about land being monopolized by the rich. In the early Roman Republic there were three kinds of land: private land, common pasture, and public land or land of the public domain, which was rented to private entrepreneurs. By the second century B.C., however, people often took over public lands and treated them as if they were private. Despite early laws that focused on limiting how much land people could own, wealthy types were able to accumulate large holdings. With the profitability of olive and the vine on the rise, and with ranching also providing opportunities for large gains, land was usurped by the rich at an alarming rate. With Rome still expanding and fighting wars abroad, small farmers had a hard time cultivating their land, and even when they did, they were often at a competitive disadvantage with wealthier types owning larger areas of land. With many of these farmers looking to the city for the opportunity to make a living, many were left impoverished and unproductive, creating a restless urban society.
Historical Context: In 133 B C. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, the plebeian tribune, attempted to improve the situation by enacting in the Tribal Assembly legislation which (1) limited the amount of public land rented by one person to 500 jugers (about 330 acres), (2) ordered the State's repossession of all lands in excess of this, (3) assigned these lands to the poor in lots of thirty jugers for a small annual rent, (4) appointed a board of triumvirs, as a land commission, to repossess and to redistribute this land.
The legislation of Tiberius was reaffirmed in the tribunate of his brother Gaius (123-122 B C ) with certain modifications
Historical Figures of Note:
Tiberius - A Roman Populares politician of the 2nd century BC and brother of Gaius Gracchus. As a plebeian tribune, his reforms of agrarian legislation sought to transfer wealth from the wealthy, patricians and otherwise, to the poor and caused political turmoil in the Republic. These reforms threatened the holdings of rich landowners in Italy. He was murdered, along with many of his supporters, by members of the Roman Senate and supporters of the conservative Optimate faction.
Gaius Sempronius Gracchus - A Roman Popularis politician in the 2nd century BC and brother of the ill-fated reformer Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. His election to the office of tribune in the years 123 BC and 122 BC and reformative policies while in office prompted a constitutional crisis and his death at the hands of the Roman Senate in 121 BC.
Marcus Baebius - A consul of the Roman Republic in 181 BC along with P. Cornelius Cethegus. Baebius is credited with reform legislation pertaining to campaigns for political offices and electoral bribery. The Lex Baebia was the first bribery law in Rome and had long-term impact on Roman administrative practices.
Definitions Learned:
Usufruct - refers a right of enjoyment, enabling a holder to derive profit or benefit from property that either is titled to another person or which is held in common ownership, as long as the property is not damaged or destroyed.
Duumvir - is an alliance between two equally powerful political or military leaders. The term can also be used to describe a state with two different military leaders who both declare themselves to be the sole leader of the state.
Triumvirs - a political regime dominated by three powerful individuals
Surety - in finance, a promise by one party to assume responsibility for the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults. The person or company that provides this promise is also known as a surety or guarantor.
Interesting Points about this Document:
- Interesting how private land is legally protected by #10: "if anyone, after this law is enacted, gains possession of or holds for purposes of cultivation a section of this land of no more than thirty jugers, this land shall be private property."
- Interesting how in #11, no one is expected to be taxed for having their animals use common pastures, as long as that number does not exceed ten.
- It must have been reassuring to land owners that #14 protected them from being ejected from their land by force.
- Interesting how in #18 and #19, public lands are restricted from having people fence off any portion of this land, and that this land should not be used to charge people for its usage by their animals.
- According to #24, "public roads in the land of Italy should be kept passable and unobstructed.
- According to #26, laws were similar to non-Romans as they were Romans.
- According to #30, when a tax farmer is owed money and a complaint is filed, it is interesting that eleven recuperators from fifty citizens of the first class would be appointed to represented a type of jury. From these, the plaintiff and the defendant were able to reject up to four individuals apiece, leaving three or more to essentially provide a verdict.
- It is particularly interesting that land in Africa was sold in Rome, as mentioned in #33 and #34.
- In #37, if land was taken to you illegally, you could be sold land in Africa for one sesterce.
- Interesting how in #44 the law specifically refers to the free peoples of Africa, who remained friends of the Roman people in the last Punic War or who deserted from the enemy and surrendered to a Roman general last Punic War.
- #46 lists the land that is exempted from the legal arrangements it is about to declare.
- Interesting that in #54, the roads which were in the land before the capture of Carthage: all these shall remain public, as are the pathways between the visions of land ...
- What exactly are numbers 2-6 trying to say?
- What is the significance of the March 15th deadline that keeps being mentioned?
This is an entry for the Historical Period covering 4000bce - 399. Within this historical period, this is Ancient Document 2 of 9.
