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Republic, by Andrew Stephenson

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Title: Public Lands and Agrarian Laws of the Roman Republic

Author: Andrew Stephenson

Release Date: June 16, 2004 [EBook #12638]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
IN
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor

* * * * *

History is past Politics and Politics present History--_Freeman_

* * * * *

NINTH SERIES
VII-VIII

PUBLIC LANDS AND AGRARIAN LAWS
OF THE
ROMAN REPUBLIC

BY ANDREW STEPHENSON, PH.D.
_Professor of History, Wesleyan University_

* * * * *

BALTIMORE

THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS

JULY-AUGUST, 1891

Copyright, 1891, BY THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS.

PREFACE.

In the following pages it has been my object to trace the history of the
domain lands of Rome from the earliest times to the establishment of the
Empire. The plan of the work has been to sketch the origin and growth of
the idea of private property in land, the expansion of the _ager publicus_
by the conquest of neighboring territories, and its absorption by means of
sale, by gift to the people, and by the establishment of colonies, until
wholly merged in private property. This necessarily involves a history of
the agrarian laws, as land distributions were made and colonies established
only in accordance with laws previously enacted.

My reason for undertaking such a work as the present is found in the fact
that agrarian movements have borne more or less upon every point in Roman
constitutional history, and a proper knowledge of the former is necessary
to a just interpretation of the latter.

This whole question presents numerous obscurities before which it has been
necessary more than once to hesitate; it offers, both in its entirety and
in detail, difficulties which I have at least earnestly endeavored
to lessen. These obscu