272 Land-policy 



would take the form of political rights and responsibilities. But political 

 life was dead, and privilege could only mean local liberties, exemption 

 from burdens, and the like. And in the long run the maintenance or 

 abolition of privilege would have to depend on the success or failure of 

 the system. Now the emperors of the first two centuries of the Empire 

 did their best to maintain the privileged position of Italy. But even in 

 the time of Augustus it was already becoming clear that Romanized 

 Italy depended on Rome and that Rome, so far as the Senate and 

 Magistrates were concerned, could not provide for the efficient adminis- 

 tration of Italy or even of Rome itself. Then began the long gradual 

 process by which Italy, like the rest of the empire, passed more and 

 more under the control of the imperial machine. In the period we are 

 now considering this was steadily going on, for brief reactions, such as 

 that under Nerva, did not really check it, and Italy was well on the 

 way to become no more than a Province. 



The feature of this period most important in connexion with the 

 present inquiry is the evidence 1 that emperors were as a rule painfully 

 conscious of Italian decay. Alive to the dangers involved in its con- 

 tinuance, they accepted the responsibility of doing what they could to 

 arrest it. Their efforts took various forms, chiefly (a) the direct en- 

 couragement of farming (b) relief of poverty (c) measures for providing 

 more rural population or preventing emigration of that still existing. It 

 is evident that the aim was to place and keep more free rustics on the 

 land. In the numerous allotments of land to discharged soldiers a 

 number of odd pieces 2 (subsiciva), not included in the lots assigned, 

 were left over, and had been occupied by squatters. Vespasian, rigidly 

 economical in the face of threatened state-bankruptcy, had the titles 

 inquired into, and resumed and sold those pieces where no valid grant 

 could be shewn. Either this was not fully carried out, or some squatters 

 must have been allowed to hold on as 'possessors,' probably paying a 

 quit-rent to the treasury. For Domitian 3 found some such people still 

 in occupation and converted their tenure into proprietorship, on the 

 ground that long possession had established a prescriptive right. Nerva 

 tried to go further 4 by buying land and planting agricultural colonies : 

 but little or nothing was really effected in his brief reign. In relief of 

 poverty it was a notable extension to look beyond the city of Rome, 



1 The numerous references need not be given here. They can be found in H. Schiller's 

 Geschichte der Romischen Kaiserzeit. 



2 Schiller I 515, 534. See Hyginus gromat I p 133, Frontinus ibid pp 53-4, and the 

 rescript of Domitian in Girard, textes part I ch 4 5. Suetonius Dom g. 



3 Domitian also made ordinances forbidding new vineyards in Italy and enjoining the 

 destruction of those in the Provinces. But these were not carried out. Schiller I 533. Suet 

 Dom 7, 14, Stat silv iv 3 11-12. 



4 Schiller I 540. 



