Soldier-settlers 275 



town of Uchi Maius received the title of colonia from the emperor Severus, 

 it called itself 1 colonia Mariana^ like the one founded by Marius in Corsica. 

 And the same title appears in the case 2 of Thibari. With these African settle- 

 ments we may connect the law carried by Saturninus in 100 BC to provide the 

 veterans of Marius with allotments of land in Africa, on the scale of 100 iugera 

 for each man. If this record 3 is to be trusted (and the doubtful points cannot 

 be discussed here), the natural inference is that farms of considerable size are 

 meant, for the working of which no small amount of labour would be required. 

 Nor is this surprising, for the soldiers of Marius were at the time masters of 

 the situation, and not likely to be content with small grants. Whether the 

 allotments proposed were in Africa or in Cisalpine Gaul 4 is not quite certain. 

 Marius seems to have left Africa in the winter of 105-4 BC. Since then he 

 had been engaged in the war with the northern barbarians, and the lands re- 

 covered from the invaders were in question. Still, the proposal may have 

 referred to Africa, for it is certain that the connexion of Marius with that 

 Province was remembered 5 long after. The important point is that the persons 

 to be gratified were not civilian peasants but discharged veterans of the New 

 Model army, professionalized by Marius himself. Neither the retired profes- 

 sional mercenaries of Greco-Macedonian armies, nor the military colonists of 

 Sulla, give us reason to believe that such men would regard hard and mono- 

 tonous labour with their own hands as a suitable reward for the toils and perils 

 of their years of military service. Surely they looked forward to a life of com- 

 parative ease, with slaves to labour under their orders. If they kept their hold 

 on their farms, they would become persons of some importance in their own 

 provincial neighbourhood. Such were the milites or veterani whom we find 

 often mentioned under the later Empire: and these too were evidently not 

 labourers but landlords and directors. 



Therefore I hold that the class of men, many of them Italians by descent, 

 whom we find holding land in various Provinces and living on the profits of 

 the same, were mostly if not all either soldier-settlers or persons to whom land- 

 holding was one of several enterprises of exploitation. That the mere Italian 

 peasant emigrated in such numbers as seriously to promote the falling-off of 

 the free rustic population of Italy, is a thesis that I cannot consider as proved 

 or probable. 



XXXV. MUSONIUS. 



In earlier chapters I have found it necessary to examine the views 

 of philosophers on the subject of agriculture and agricultural labour, 

 holding it important to note the attitude of great thinkers towards 

 these matters. And indeed a good deal is to be gleaned from Plato 

 and Aristotle. Free speculations on the nature of the State included 

 not only strictly political inquiries, but social and economic also. But 

 in the Macedonian Jpjeriod, when Greek states no longer enjoyed un- 

 restricted freecfam of movement and policy, a change came over 

 philosophy. The tendency of the schools that now shewed most vital 

 energy, such as the Epicurean and Stoic, was to concern themselves 



1 Inscription, Dessau 1334, CIL vm 15454. 



2 Dessau 6790. 3 [Victor] de viris illustribus 73 i, cf 5. 



4 Cf Appian civ I 29 i. 



5 Bellum Afr 32, 35, 56, Dion Cass XLIII 4 i. 



1 8 2 



