Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/159

141 INVOLUTION AT LEONTINI. 141 they could in other cities, the rich Leontines deserted and dis mantled their own city, transferred their residence to Syracuse, and had probably be in all absorbed and assigned in private property before the agrarian disputes began. We cannot suppose that the Leontines had any ager publicus acquired by conquest, nor are we entitled to presume that they had any at all, capa- ble of being divided. Most probably the lots for the new citizens were to be provided out of private property. But unfortunately we are not told how, nor on what principles and conditions. Of what class of men wen. 1 the new emigrants ? Were they individuals altogether poor, having noth ing but their hands to work with ; or did they bring with them any amount of funds, to begin their settlement on the fertile and tempting plain of Le ontini ? (compare Thucyd. i, 27, and Plato de Legib. v, p. 744, A.) If the latter, we have no reason to imagine that they would be allowed to acquire their new lots gratuitously. Existing proprietors would be forced to sell at a fixed price, but not to yield their properties without compensation. I have already noticed, that to a small self-working proprietor, who had nc slaves, it was almost essential that his land should be near the city ; and provided this were insured, it might be a good bargain for a new resident having some money, but no land elsewhere, to come in and buy. We have no means of answering these questions : but the few words of Thucydides do not present this measure as revolutionary, or as intended against the rich, or for the benefit of the poor. It was proposed, on public grounds, to strengthen the city by the acquisition of new citizens. This might be wise policy, in the close neighborhood of a doubtful and superior city, like Syracuse ; though we cannot judge of the policy of the measure without knowing more. But most assuredly Mr. Mitford's representation can be noway justified from Thucydides : " Time and circumstances had greatly altered the state of property in all the Sicilian commonwealths, since that incomplete and iniquitous partition of lands, which had been made, on the general establishment of democratical government, aftei' the expulsion of the family of Gelon. In other cities, the poor rested under their lot ; but in Lcontini, they were warm in project for afresh and equal partition ; and to strengthen themselves against the party of the wealthy, they carried, in the general assembly, a decree for associating a number of new citizens." (Mitford, II. G. ch. xviii, sect, ii, vol. iv, p. 23.) I have already remarked, in a previous note, that Mr. Mitford has misrep- resented the redivision of lands which took place after the expulsion of th Gelonian dynasty. That redivision had not been upon the principle of equal lots : it is not therefore correct to assert, as Mr. Mitford does, tha, the present movement at Lcontini arose from the innovation made by time and circumstances in that equal division: as little is it correct to say, that the poor at Lcontini now .loired " a fresh and equal partition." Thncyd- idus says not one it-nr,! <./.<< : <'/"(/ twill ion. lit- puts forward the enrolment