The History of Acient Rome - Essay Example

Dorman Shaw Western History Since the beginning of Roman history the Romans were known as settled peasants. The Romans where both patrician and plebeian. The patrician where originally the elite groups in Rome, and later the group also was included to the higher courts. The plebeian where originally from the middle and lower class who came later in the empire, in gaining wealth, higher in rank. They represented the type of a peasant who was tenacious and greedy for land. A typical early hero of ancient Rome is Cincinnatus, the dictator taken from a plough, who served as consul of Rome 460 BC and as Dictator in 458 BC and 439 BC. Despite the function he had, he remained on his farm to life as farmer. He opposed against Terentilius to draw laws and codes for the plebeians and aristocracy to benefit the plebeians. Therefore the agrarian question represents the basis of Roman history. When the Romans started to expand their territory, due to the greed of the land, the Romans were at war with neighbors. They built more new settlements on the captured land because the Senate was anxious about it. The agrarian law was a sore point for the republican and imperial Rome, for them the profession of the land surveyor (agrimeusor) was a national science. OR WAS WHAT THEY DIT BEST Thanks to allotment of public land colonies were turning into cities. The number of the Roman citizens was constantly growing and Rome was getting larger and stronger. Around 150 BC the empire was at the height of its power. Before the land property was undermined in Rome since the most ancient times. As well as in Greece, by a dangerous disaster namely debts. We can judge about the enormous value of promissory notes but not by means of historians, who used it to describe as dramatic scenes. The basis of Leges duodecim tabularum (The Law of the Twelve Tables), the most archaic fragments, defines the destiny of the poor debtor. The law Leges Liciniae Sextiae (the law of Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus) limited the size of land ownership in the public land fund that could be owned by patricians. These actions expanded access of plebeians to land funds. The law lex Poetelia Papiria that passed in 326 B.C. cancelled the debt servitude, as stated in The Law of the Twelve Tables. The Roman wars with the barbarians to expand the territory undermined the basis of the Roman peasantry even more directly. Assuming more and more to increase the scale of Rome, the soldiers where moving away from Rome due to long wars, to fight and tore the soldier off from his land near Rome. The known balance between a decrease from war and gain of the settled country population was sustained when Romans had the possibility to make allotments in Northern Italy. By the middle of the 2nd century the stock of the free public land was exhausted and therefor the dispossession of land among the Roman citizens went even faster. This period in Roman history witnessed the changes in the Roman agriculture which had a fatal importance for small land ownership. Under Roman power, owing to expand territory, the trading intercourses of the Mediterranean Sea changed drastically. Bread for example began to be brought not only from Sicily, but also from Numidia and Egypt. The competition in agriculture with Italy destroyed the income and forced land owners to forget arable land and get cattle. We know most about these changes by the words of Marcus Porcius Cato, an excellent farmer who was asked: what is the most favorable way of economy. His answer was - bene pascere (good cattle breeding), bad cattle breeding, and then arable farming (arare). The peasants who were not able to find earnings at landowners and without having the possibility to change to cattle breeding due to insignificance of land suffered the first of all. They had to sell their lots, and that turned out as source of latifundia. Pliny the Younger explains this as that it has ruined Italy. In the 2nd century the population of Italy grew considerably. The plots of arable land received by plebeians were shared between successors and became insufficient for livelihood. The poor were unable to get weapons to serve in legions; they demanded land during national meetings, which would provide their military service. The Roman Army needed to be expanded. In 133 the tribune Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus passed the law providing repartition of national land in favor of the poor, but an attempt of reforms ended with failure and Gracchus was killed. After Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus death the Roman senate did not dare to cancel the land laws passed by him. It could lead to open rebellion of peasantry. Therefore the allotment of land proceeded, Tiberius' brother Gaius joined the struggle but the process went on slowly and inertly as large land owners resisted the reform even more furiously. The movement headed by Gracchus brothers could not be crowned with success. Gracchus brothers aspired to revive the Roman peasantry. Therefor in the 2nd century B.C. Rome and Italy already had taken the way of slaveholding development. The next century was filled with fierce war between the lower classes and the nobility. The struggle was joined by the Italics, the population of Italy subdued by Rome; the Italics demanded land and civil rights. In 91-82 the conflict led to a bloody civil war, Italics obtained the civil rights but did not receive any land. The landless starved, moved to the cities, begged for bread, tried to be engaged in handicraft. Italy experienced what had once occurred in the Eastern countries - growth of population had led to shortage of land, hunger and revolts of the deprived. The struggle became aggravated; gradually commanders who demanded land for their soldiers began to be involved in struggle. The deputy of Gallia Julius Caesar autocratically founded colonies and provided soldiers with land. When the senate recognized his actions as to be illegal, Caesar moved his legions to Rome and took over power. In Rome a monarchic rule was established. Caesar and his successor August subjected the nobility to severe reprisals, took away most parts of their land and gave it to the poor. The civil war led to the death of most part of the population, repartition of land and establishment of monarchy. In the 2nd century A.D overpopulation began to be felt even in recently captured provinces. As well as in Gallia as in Spain shortages of land took place. The landless poor population was ready to work for a piece of bread. Through this the war had come to an end, the slaves had risen in price and it appeared that the labor of free farm laborers was cheaper than the labor of slaves. The slaves were allowed to be redeemed on will and their number reduced. Therefor gradually slavery lost its significance. Large land owners let lend on lease to tenants-colons. In the entire 2nd century hunger and revolts took place, across all the Mediterranean raged the plague. The barbarians invaded the Empire, weakened by distempers. A new catastrophe which was named the crisis of the 3rd century. In the 5th century the Empire could not constrain the barbarous invasion, most parts of Europe where occupied by barbarians, and the Western Roman Empire stopped in its previous existence. As it may be seen from history, land was the central point of all global changes which occurred in the ancient Roman Empire. This issue was a real struggle for all Roman leaders, but only a few of them could really change the existing state. Landless who first starved due to slavery turned out to be the ending of slavery. Free labor saved the landless. BIBLIOGRAPHY Louis, P. Ancient Rome at Work: An Economic History of Rome from the Origins to the Empire. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1927. Mortimer Chambers, Barbara Hanawalt, Theodore K. Rabb, Isser Woloch, Raymond Grew and Lisa Tiersten, The Western Experience Volume 1: To The Eighteenth Century, ninth edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007), Read More