Phillips. — On the Law of Gavelkind. 523 



the history of Greece, and the fact of Lycurgus dividing Sparta into 9,000 

 lots, and Laconia into 30,000, together with the Ep$wtvoi<s title, the model 

 perhaps of feudalism, let ns see what the Eoman laws were. 



You will remember that Eome 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 Eoman citizen was supposed, as his 

 birthright, to have a share in the public lands. 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 Eoman citizens. These estates 

 were mere tenancies- at-will as we may imagine. Time ran on. 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, Eome itself, and of 

 other great towns, increased in numbers, and Eoman 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 b.c.) 

 tried, and after a struggle of five years carried his Bill. 



The Licinian Law was as follows : — Every Eoman 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 130 b.c, a redistribution of 

 the public estate became absolutely necessary, and Tiberius Sempronius 



