Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/126

 CHAPTER II.

THE LAWS OF GAIUS FLAMINIUS AND THE REFORM OF THE CENTURIATE ASSEMBLY, 241-220 B.C.

I. The Agrarian Law and the Policy of Flaminius.

General Conditions. — Since the passage of the Licinian law in 367, the Roman republic had made very extensive territorial acquisitions, and had organized ten of the thirty-five districts (tribus). Thousands of poor citizens had been provided with farms, in connection with the establishment of the Latin and the Roman colonies, several of which had been founded during the recent war. Allotments of public land had also been made. But no agrarian law seems to have been passed, and there are no records to show that those who occupied more public land than the maximum of three hundred and eleven acres (p. 66) were prosecuted after the year 298. Probably this provision was disregarded with impunity by covetous nobles. In any case, the aristocracy secured proportionately the lion's share of the advantages derived from the public domain. The first Punic war had caused distress and impoverishment among the poorer citizens of Rome, and they were not in a position to profit by the direct and indirect sources of gain which the new provinces offered to the nobility and the rich. Nevertheless, no measure of relief seems to have been proposed for a number of years.

Agrarian Law of Flaminius. — Under these circumstances the new opposition (p. 105), which for a long time had been dormant, revived under the leadership of a new man, Gaius