Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/55

Rh indirectly increased. They had to pay the temporary tax (tributum) so much oftener, when the state was deprived of the considerable revenue accruing from the tenth, the fifth, and the grazing tax; and they had to pay practically a higher rate, because all their lands were taxable, but the lands that had been occupied were not.

The Law of Debt. — If by reason of the wars and the unjust and injurious financial policy a small farmer had been compelled to borrow money and could not repay, he fell a victim to the severity of the law of debt and possibly to the partisanship of a patrician magistrate. According to a very old form of contract (nexum per aes et libram) the borrower (nexus) pledged his person as security; and, if insolvent, he was seized (per manus injectionem) by his creditor after a respite of thirty days, and became practically the slave (servi loco) of the latter. He might be made to work, be whipped, imprisoned, and chained. He lost his property, and his family shared his fate. Eventually, he might be sold as a slave by his creditor.

The Distress of Plebeian Debtors. — The creditors were in general patricians, and the debtors, plebeians. The patricians were better able to obtain relief, both because of their complete organization into clans and their political privileges. They probably allowed some wealthy plebeians to occupy public lands and to use the public pastures, in order to win their support. In this way the small plebeian farmers and laborers lost their most influential allies, while the ranks of the oppressors were increased. The burdens and ravages of war, together with the unjust financial administration, reduced a great number of plebeians to distress, which was aggravated by the violence and partisanship of the magistrates. In the course of a few years of patrician domination the condition of affairs became intolerable.