e more than 33,000 -medimni- =
198,000 -modii- (Cic. Verr. iii. 30, 72), only some 40,000
burgesses at that time received grain, whereas the number of
burgesses domiciled in the capital was certainly far more
considerable. This arrangement probably proceeded from
the Octavian law, which introduced instead of the extravagant
Sempronian amount "a moderate largess, tolerable for the state and
necessary for the common people" (Cic. de Off. ii. 21, 72, Brut.
62, 222); and to all appearance it is this very law that is
the -lex frumentaria- mentioned by Licinianus. That Lepidus should have
entered into such a proposal of compromise, accords with his attitude
as regards the restoration of the tribunate. It is likewise in
keeping with the circumstances that the democracy should find itself
not at all satisfied by the regulation, brought about in this way,
of the distribution of grain (Sallust, l. c.). The amount of loss
is calculated on the basis of the grain being worth at least double
(IV. III. Alterations on the Constitution By Gaius Gracchus);
when piracy or other causes drove up the price of grain,
a far more considerable loss must have resulted.

20. From the fragments of the account of Licinianus (p. 44, Bonn)
it is plain that the decree of the senate, -uti Lepidus et Catulus
decretis exercitibus maturrime proficiscerentur- (Sallust, Hist. i.
44 Dietsch), is to be understood not of a despatch of the consuls
before the expiry of their consulship to their proconsular
provinces, for which there would have been no reason, but of their
being sent to Etruria against the revolted Faesulans, just as in
the Catilinarian war the consul Gaius Antonius was despatched to
the same quarter. The statement of Philippus in Sallust (Hist. i.
48, 4) that Lepidus -ob seditionem provinciam cum exercitu adeptus
est-, is entirely in harmony with this view; for the extraordinary
consular command in Etruria was just as much a -provincia- as
the ordinary proconsular command in Narbonese Gaul.

21. III. IV. Hannibal's Passage of the Alps

22. In the recently found fragments of Sallust, which appear to
belong to the campaign of 679, the following words relate to this
incident: -Romanus [exer]citus (of Pompeius) frumenti gra[tia
r]emotus in Vascones i... [it]emque Sertorius mon... e, cuius
multum in[terer]it, ne ei perinde Asiae [iter et Italiae
intercluderetur].

Notes for Chapter II

1. IV. VIII. New Difficulties

2. IV.