Pariiws.—On the Law of Gavelkind. 528 
the history of Greece, and the fact of Lycurgus dividing Sparta into 9,000 
lots, and Laconia into 30,000, together with the euurevors title, the model 
perhaps of feudalism, let us see what the Roman laws were. 
You will remember that Rome gradually conquered the countries sur- 
rounding the Mediterranean Sea, and confiscated the whole of the lands. 
These lands became the spoil of the Imperial city, and she colonized them 
in various ways—by military colonies, and by direct grant to favoured 
citizens, leaving however to the inhabitants of the conquered countries as 
much land as they required. Every Roman citizen was supposed, as his 
birthright, to have a share in the publiclands. They were granted upon the 
condition of paying a tithe rent, or a tenth of their produce, into the Public 
Treasury, and rough records of the different ownerships were kept, upon 
which perhaps the record of our own Domesday Survey was afterwards 
founded. Suffice it to say that the Italian, Punic, and Grecian wars ended 
by vastly increasing the landed estates of Roman citizens. These estates 
were mere tenancies-at-will as we may imagine. Timeranon. The public 
domain was taken up, although we should not consider the different private 
estates large now-a-days. The mere tenants-at-will, by long-undisturbed 
possession (I speak now of centuries of time), had converted their leaseholds 
into absolute ownership. The mere course of time produced such an effect. 
The lands changed hands, until it was difficult to tell which was public, 
which private property. The population of the capital, Rome itself, and of 
other great towns, increased in numbers, and Roman statesmen, in order to 
relieve the distressed poor, asked themselves why the poor citizens should 
not have a portion of the public estate ? Servius Tullius tried to pass an 
agrarian law as it was called, but was defeated by the nobles and wealthy 
capitalists (in many cases commoners) who were monopolizing these lands. 
Spurius Cassius, the Consul, next tried, but his proposal met with no better 
fate, and he himself was beheaded. Then Licinius Stolo (about 367 s.c.) 
tried, and after a struggle of five years carried his Bill. 
The Licinian Law was as follows :—Every Roman citizen should be 
entitled to occupy any portion of the unallotted State land, not exceeding 
500 jugera (a jugera was about two-thirds of an acre), and to feed on the 
public pasture land any number of cattle not exceeding 100 head of large, 
or 500 head of small; paying in both cases the usual rates to the Public 
Treasury. Whatever portions of the public land, beyond 500 jugera, 
were occupied by individuals, should be taken from them, and distributed 
among the poorer citizens as absolute property, at the rate of seven jugera 
(about 5 acres) a-piece. 
For two centuries and a half this law, and the military colonies drafting 
away emigrants, relieved distress ; but, about 180 8.c., a redistribution of 
the public estate became absolutely necessary, and Tiberius Sempronius 
