Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/88

 76 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME territory was taken from a vanquished foe this became common or public land. As such it was occupied only by the full citizens, that is to say the Patricians. The demand was naturally made that the Plebeians should have their share. This principle was recognised in spite of great efforts on the part of the Patricians The t0 res i st or evade it. An advance was made when Decemvirs, a committee of ten, called the Decemvirs, were B.C. 450. appointed not to legislate but to put the existing laws into shape. The code thus produced was adopted by the Comitia, and became known as the 'twelve tables,' a sort of Magna Charta or Statutory Declaration of the first principles of the Constitution. The conduct, however, of a fresh group of Decemvirs led again to a secession of the Plebs. The popular grievances by degrees led up to the passing of the laws which are known as the Licinian Rogations, which The Licinian were ^ ue to the determination of the two tribunes Rogations, Licinius and Sextius. This law enacted that one B.C. 367. consul must be a Plebeian; it limited the amount of public land which any one tenant could rent from the state, and the number of sheep or cattle he might graze on public land. Further, it endeavoured to release the poorer citizens from the pressure under which they suffered, by compelling the land-holders to employ paid labour as well as slave labour, and by providing convenient terms of settlement for debtors. The measure did not succeed in one of its main objects, which was to prevent the accumulation of great quantities of land in a very few hands. The small farmers who constituted the bulk of the Plebeians derived some benefit from the restrictions with regard to the public lands and from the reduced taxation, because of the increased rents which the exchequer received from the leasing of public land. What especially relieved Military the earth hunger however, the need felt for more Colonies. i an d by the Plebeian yeomen as their number multiplied, was the practice of planting them as military colonists where new territories were acquired, in occupation of the soil. So long as this expansion of territory kept pace with the increase of the rural population, the agrarian question did not again become acute.