Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/173

Rh country, the barrier between it and the provinces was not to be broken down. Accordingly the solution of the problem came to depend practically on the question whether the state ought to reclaim the public domain in Italy, which was now occupied by private individuals, and to distribute it among the poor citizens.

Advocates of Economic Reform. — The nobility in general was as much opposed to resumption now as in former times. But a few of the leading men of the state were inclined to favor it. Of these the chief was Scipio Aemilianus, the greatest general and the most illustrious Roman of his time. He had endeavored to improve the administration of justice and aided Lucius Cassius in carrying his law on the ballot; but he never introduced any great political measure of his own, perhaps because he considered the remedy which was necessary to be worse than the existing evils. His friend, Gaius Laelius, had as praetor in 145 prepared an agrarian law, providing for the resumption and distribution of the Italian public lands heretofore occupied by private persons; but he met with resistance in the senate, probably came to realize the immense difficulties in the way of his project, and dropped it. Afterward the Scipionic circle held a middle position between the rest of the nobles and the reformers.

Appius Claudius Pulcher, censor in 136 and now first senator (princeps sencatus), favored such an agrarian law, and censured the Scipionic circle for abandoning it Publius Crassus Mucianus, the chief pontiff (pontifex maximus), and his brother Publius Mucius Scaevola, the consul elect for 133, who were eminent both as men and jurists, also favored reform. So, among others, did Quintus Caecilius Metellus, the conqueror of Macedonia and Achaia.

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. — While these eminent men hesitated, or were not willing, to step into the breach, a