Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/197

Rh the author of a law respecting extortion, and Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, the most energetic and eloquent democratic leader since Gaius Gracchus, but ready to vie with the aristocrats in trickery and violence. Saturninus was tribune in 103, played a leading part in the prosecution of the aristocrats, and probably in this connection carried a law which was intended to cover specific acts of embezzlement and treason (maiestas minuta) committed in Gaul, but was capable of extension. To conciliate Marius and his soldiers, he secured the enactment of another law providing that the veterans of Marius should each receive about sixty-two acres (100 jugera) of land in Africa.

With these men Marius in 101 entered, it would seem, into an agreement: he was to seek a reëlection to the consulship, and Saturninus to the tribunate, while Glaucia was to be a candidate for the praetorship. They succeeded in their designs, Marius owing his election to bribery, and Saturninus resorting to assassination. They were now ready to execute their plans, as the colleague of Marius was subservient to him.

Laws of Saturninus. — Accordingly, Saturninus, who to a large extent had adopted the ideas and tactics of Gaius Gracchus, proposed a series of laws calculated primarily to win the support of the soldiers and the urban proletariat. The Gallic lands in the region beyond the Po were to be distributed among individual citizens, Latins, and other Italian allies. To insure the execution of this beneficial law, Saturninus inserted the provision that every senator should swear obedience to it under pain of being expelled from the senate and heavily fined. He further proposed that Roman colonies should be established in Macedonia, Achaia, Sicily; and also in Africa, since his former law had not been executed. The veterans of Marius, many of whom were poor, were to obtain about sixty-two