The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Licinius, Gaius

LICINIUS, lī-sĭn'ĭ-ŭs, Gaius, Roman tribune. He came of a plebeian family, but rose to the rank of tribune, receiving the surname of Stolo, or Useless Sprout, by reason of the law which he established forbidding any one to possess more than 500 acres of land. His reason for this was that when more land was cultivated by any one owner the latter could not pull up the useless shoots (stolones) which grew from the roots of trees. Another law of his enactment allowed the plebeians to share the consular dignity with the patricians; and he himself became one of the first plebeian consuls, 364 B.C.