A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate Part 31

[775] Cic. _Brut_. 36. 136 Sp. Thorius satis valuit in populari genere dicendi, is qui agrum public.u.m vitiosa et inutili lege vectigali levavit. Cf. _de Orat_. ii. 70. 284. Appian, on the other hand; makes Sp. Thorius the author of the law preceding this (p. 285). It is possible that Cicero may be mistaken, but, if he is correct, the fragments of the agrarian law which we possess may be those of the _lex Thoria_, the name given to it by its earlier editors. For a different view see Mommsen in C.I.L. i. pp. 75 ff.

[776] App. _Bell Civ_. i. 27 [Greek: _tous phorous ou poly hysteron dielyse daemarchos heteros_.]

[777] The latest years to which it refers are those of the censors of 115 and the consuls of 113, 112 and 111. The harvest and future vintage of 111 are referred to (1. 95), and it has, therefore, been a.s.signed to some period between January 1 and the summer of this year. See Rudorff _Das Ackergesetz des Sp. Thorius_ and cf. Mommsen l.c. It is a curious fact, however, that a law dealing with African land amongst others should have been pa.s.sed in the first year of active hostilities with Jugurtha. From this point of view the date which marks the close of the Jugurthine war, suggested by Kiene (_Bundesgenossenkrieg_ p. 125), i.e., 106 or 105 B.C., is more probable. But the objection to this view is that the law contains no reference to the censors of 109. See Mommsen l.c.

[778] _Ager compascuus_. See Mommsen l.c. and Voigt _Ueber die staatsrechtliche possessio und den ager compascuus der rom. Republik_.

[779] The _pastores_ also must often have been too indefinite a body to make it possible to treat them as joint owners.

[780] The tribune L. Marcius Philippus, when introducing an agrarian law in 104 B.C., made the startling statement "Non esse in civitate duo milia hominum, qui rem haberent" (Cic. _de Off_. ii. 21, 73). If there was even a minimum of truth in his words, the expression "qui rem haberent" must mean "moneyed men," "people comfortably off."

[781] Mommsen in C.I.L. l.c.

[782] Kiene also thinks (_Bundesgenossenkrieg_ p. 146) that the right given by the law of exchanging a bit of one's own land for an equivalent bit of the public domain, which became private property, was reserved solely for the citizen.

[783] Cic. _Brut_. 26. 102; _de Orat_. ii. 70. 281; _de Fin_. i. 3. 8.

[784] Vellei. ii. 8; Cic. _in Verr_. iii 80. 184; iv. 10. 22.

[785] [Victor] _de Vir. Ill_. 72 Consul legem de sumptibus et libertinorum suffragiis tulit.

[786] Liv. xlv, 15.

[787] [Victor] l.c..

[788] Plin. _H.N_. viii. 57. 223.

[789] Ca.s.siodor. _Chron_. L. Metellus et Cn. Domitius censores artem ludicram ex urbe removerunt praeter Latinum tibicinem c.u.m cantore et ludum talarium. The _ludus talarius_ in its chief form was a game of skill, not of chance. The reference here may be to juggling with the _tali_ on the stage, not to the pursuit of the game in domestic life.

[790] Liv. _Ep_. lxiii.

[791] _Fast. triumph_.; [Victor] _de Vir. Ill_. 72.

[792] Val. Max. vii. 1. 1.

[793] [Victor] _de Vir. Ill_. 72.

[794] [Victor] l.c. Ipse primo dubitavit honores peteret an argentariam faceret.

[795] [Victor] l.c. Aedilis juri reddendo magis quam muneri edendo studuit.

[796] Sall.u.s.t (_Jug_. 15) gives the following somewhat unkind sketch of the great senatorial champion, "Aemilius Scaurus, h.o.m.o n.o.bilis, inpiger, factiosus, avidus potentiae, honoris, divitiarum, ceterum vitia sua callide occultans". "Inpiger, factiosus" are testimonies of his value to his party. The last words of the sketch are a confession that his reputation may have been blemished by suspicion, but never by proof.

[797] [Victor] l.c. Consul Ligures et Gantiscos domuit, atque de his triumphavit. Cf. _Fast. triumph_.

[798] [Victor] l.c.

[799] Plut. _Mar_. 3.

[800] In Velleius ii. 11 the ma.n.u.script reading _natus equestri loco_ (corrected into _agresti_) may be correct.

[801] Plut. _Mar_. 3.

[802] Plut. _Mar_. 5.

[803] Ibid. 4.

[804] His military reputation amongst old soldiers had led to his easy attainment of the military tribunate. Sall. _Jug_. 63 Ubi primum tribunatum militarem a populo pet.i.t, plerisque faciem ejus ignorantibus, facile notus per omnis tribus declaratur. Deinde ab eo magistratu alium post alium sibi peperit.

[805] Plut. _Mar_. 4.

[806] Plut. l.c. [Greek: _nomon tina peri psaephophorias graphontos autou dokounta ton dynaton aphaireisthai taen peri tas kriseis ischyn_].

It is possible, however, that _kriseis_ may simply mean "decisions".

[807] Cic. _de Leg_. iii. 17. 38 Pontes ... lex Maria fecit angustos.

[808] Plut. l.c. [Greek: _ei me diagrapseie to dogma_.]

[809] Plut. l.c. [Greek: _nomou ... eispheromenou peri sitou dianomaes_]. See p. 284.

[810] Plut. _Mar_ 5. Cf. Cic. _pro Planc_. 21, 51; Val. Max.

vi. 9. 14.

[811] Val. Max. vi. 9. 14.

[812] Plut. _Mar_. 5.

[813] [Greek: _dikastai_] (Plut. l.c.). It seems, therefore, that a special _quaestio de ambitu_ existed at this time. Otherwise, the case would naturally have gone before the Comitia. We can hardly think of a Special Commission.

[814] Plut. _Mar_. 6 [Greek: _en men oun tae strataegia metrios epainoumenon heauton paresche_].

[815] Plut. l.c.

[816] Plut. l.c.

[817] Vellei. ii. 7 Porcio Marcioque consulibus deducta colonia Narbo Martius. Cf. i. 15.

[818] This was but a [Greek: _phroura Rhomaion_] (Strabo iv. 1. 5). It had been established in 122 B.C.

[819] Cic. _pro Font_. 5. 13 Narbo Martius, colonia nostrorum civium, specula populi Romani ac propugnaculum istis ipsis nationibus oppositum et objectum.

[820] This fact appears from Cic. _pro Cluent_. 51. 140 (Cra.s.sus) in dissuasione rogationis ejus quae contra coloniam Narbonensem ferebatur, quantum potest, de auctoritate senatus detrahit. A _rogatio_ against a project implies something more than opposition to a bill.

[821] Cic. _Brut_. 43. 160 Exstat in eam legem senior ut ita dicam quam illa aetas ferebat oratio.

[822] Cic. _Brut. l.c. Cf. pro Cluent_. 51. 140; _de Orat_. ii. 55. 223; Quinctil. _Inst. Or_. vi. 3. 44.

[823] The date is unknown, but the _lex Servilia repetundarum_ was probably a product of this tribunate. An approximate date can be a.s.signed to this law, if we believe that it immediately superseded the _lex Acilia_ as the law of extortion, and that the _lex Acilia_ is the _lex repetundarum_ which has come down to us on a bronze tablet (see p.

214); for the latter law must have been abrogated by 111 B.C., since the back of the tablet on which it is inscribed is used for the _lex agraria_ of this year. The side containing the _lex Acilia_ must have been turned to the wall, and this fact seems to prove the supersession of this law by a later one on the same subject. See Mommsen in C.I.L.