Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/164

150 of this military state. But the opposite course was followed, and as a rule the provinces were allowed to export grain only to Italy. Sicily furnished the Roman armies with grain, becoming the granary of the state and the nurse of the Roman multitude. Kor was this enough. In the years 203-200 wheat was sold, apparently at the suggestion of Scipio, on public account to the citizens of Rome at from eleven to twenty-two cents per bushel (6 modii at 12-24 asses). Afterward two hundred and forty thousand bushels were distributed at eleven cents a bushel. Such distributions of grain were perhaps not infrequent and formed precedents for future agitators. In this way the Italian farmers lost in some degree their best market for grain, and the price was depressed. The average price of wheat at Rome was, however, perhaps eighty-eight cents per bushel (a modius cost one denarius).

Extension of Ranches. — Even the large landowners could not meet the provincial competition, and began to turn their attention more and more to the production of oil, wine, and wool, and to stock-raising. Ranches could be extended at pleasure, required less supervision, and could be managed better by slaves. They might also conveniently include public land that was left for occupation, and hence sometimes superseded cultivated farms even at an economic loss. In Apulia, Lucania, and the Bruttian country, stock-raising preponderated over farming as early as the time of Cato. The slaves, who were the herdsmen, were to a large extent virtual masters in these regions. Even in Latium it sometimes happened that towns like Praeneste were in danger of being captured by runaway slaves.

While the landowners were thus able to maintain themselves and to prosper, the farmers of the middle and lower classes, who had less capital and were losing their old moral tone and their habits of thrift, were ruined in many