Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/289

Rh Soon after celebrating his triumphs he caused a census of the population of Rome to be taken in the modern way from house to house, in order that he might regulate the free distribution of grain. As a result he reduced the number of those receiving the monthly allowance from 320,000 to 150,000, and decreed that the list of 150,000 be revised annually and an equal number of new applicants be enrolled in place of those who were dead. By this arrangement he lessened this burden on the treasury, which in 46 probably amounted to some $4,224,000 annually; he restricted the intrusion of persons who were not poor, and he checked the emigration of indigent people to Rome. The reform did not long remain in force, and in 2 B.C. Augustus fixed the number of recipients at two hundred thousand.

Assignment of Lands and the Founding of Colonies. — Caesar soon began to assign land in Italy to his soldiers. But, unlike Sulla, he did not settle them in military colonies. Thus he prevented conspiracies, and he was not obliged to drive out the former owners.

It seemed necessary to make further provision for the veterans and other Roman citizens. Accordingly Caesar established, or planned, Roman colonies at Baeterrae, Arausio, Noviodunum, Urso or Julia Genetiva, Carthage, Corinth, Sinope, and elsewhere. Eighty thousand citizens are said to have been sent to his transmarine colonies. Perhaps on account of this decrease of the population, Caesar ordered that at least one-third of the herdsmen of the great stock-raisers should be freemen.

Extension of Citizenship and Latin Rights. — The province of Narbo now entered the preparatory stage which cisalpine Gaul had occupied before 49 (pp. 191, 255). It had five Roman colonies, and at least the majority of its other communities received Latin rights. In Spain the ancient city