Part 10 (1/2)
[Footnote 168: E. Meyer (_Geschichte des Alterthums_, ii, 518), alleges a common misconception as to the _ager publicus_ being made a subject of cla.s.s strife; but does not make the matter at all clearer. Cp. Niebuhr, _Lectures on the History of Rome_, Eng. tr. 1-vol. ed. pp. 153-54, 407, 503.]
[Footnote 169: Shuckburgh, _History of Rome_, pp. 93, 94. Cp. Long, _Decline of the Roman Republic_, ch. xii, and Pelham, pp. 187-89, as to the frauds of the rich in the matter of the public lands.]
[Footnote 170: W.T. Arnold, _Roman Provincial Administration_, 1879, p.
26.]
[Footnote 171: Finlay, _History of Greece_, Tozer's ed. i, 39.]
[Footnote 172: When Julius Caesar abolished the public revenue from the lands of Campania by dividing them among 20,000 colonists, the only Italian revenue left was the small duty on the sale of slaves (Cicero, _Ep. ad Attic.u.m_, ii, 16).]
[Footnote 173: _Ep. ad Attic.u.m_, iv, 15 (16).]
[Footnote 174: Cp. Niebuhr, _Lectures on Roman History_, Eng. tr. 1-vol.
ed. pp. 227, 449; Gibbon, Bohn ed. iii, 404; v, 74-75.]
[Footnote 175: _Orat. pro M. Fonteio_, v. Cp. Long, _in loc._ (_Orationes_, 1855, ii, 167).]
[Footnote 176: Dr. Cunningham, preserving the conception of Rome as an ent.i.ty with choice and volition, inclines to see a necessary self-protection in most Roman wars; yet his pages show clearly enough that the moneyed cla.s.ses were the active power. He distinguishes (p.
161) ”public neglect” (of conquered peoples) from ”public oppression.”
But the public neglect was simply a matter of the control of the exploiting cla.s.s, who were the effective ”public” for foreign affairs.
Compare his admissions as to their forcing of wars and their control of justice, pp. 163, 164.]
[Footnote 177: The fullest English account of the matter is given by Long, _Decline of the Roman Republic_, iv, 423-27, following Savigny.
Cp. Plutarch's account of the doings of the _publicani_ in Asia (_Lucullus_, cc. 7, 20). Lucullus gave deadly offence at Rome by his check on their extortions, as P. Rutilius Rufus had done before him (Pelham, _Outlines of Roman History_, 1893, pp. 198, 283; Ferrero, i, 183). The lowest rate of interest charged by the _publicani_ seems to have been 12 per cent. (Niebuhr, _Lectures_, 1-vol. ed. p. 449). We shall find the same rates current in Renaissance Italy.]
[Footnote 178: Cp. R. Pohlmann, _Die Uebervolkerung der antiken Grossstadte_, 1884, pp. 14-15, 29-30. Prof. Ferrero (_Greatness and Decline of Rome_, Eng. tr. i, 123-27; ii, 131-36) affirms a restoration of Italian ”prosperity” from 80 B.C. onwards, by way first of a general cultivation of the vine and the olive by means of Oriental slaves used to such culture, and later of slave manufactures in the towns. But the evidence falls far short of the proposition. The main items are that about 52 B.C. Italy began to export olive oil, and that certain towns later won repute for pottery, textiles, arms, and so on. On the new agriculture cp. Dureau de la Malle, i, 426-27.]
[Footnote 179: W.W. Carlile, _The Evolution of Modern Money_, 1901, pp.
46, 48.]
[Footnote 180: Cp. M'Culloch, _Essays and Treatises_, 2nd ed. pp. 58-64, and refs.]
[Footnote 181: Cp. Hodgkin, _The Dynasty of Theodosius_, 1889, pp.
19-20. From Severus onwards the silver coinage had in fact become ”mere _billon_ money,” mostly copper. Carlile, as cited.]
[Footnote 182: On this cp. Pohlmann, _Die Uebervolkerung der antiken Grossstadte_, p.37, and Engel, as there cited.]
[Footnote 183: As to the probable nature of this much-discussed law see Long, _Decline of the Roman Republic_, i, chs. xi and xii. Cp. Niebuhr, _Lect._ 89.]
[Footnote 184: Plutarch, _Tiberius Gracchus_, c. 8.]
[Footnote 185: As Long remarks (i, 171), it does not appear what Tiberius Gracchus proposed to do with the slaves when he had put freemen in their place. Cp. Cunningham, p. 150.]
[Footnote 186: Cp. Pelham, _Outlines_, pp. 191-92; Ferrero, ch. iii.]
[Footnote 187: Robiou et Delaunay, _Les inst.i.tutions de l'ancienne Rome_, 1888, iii, 18.]
[Footnote 188: Cp. Juvenal, iii, 21 _sq._; 162 _sq._]