Salvete omnes


Tradition held that when Romulus first established Rome he distributed 2 iugera to each of his followers. The same size plots were held to be a standard when founding colonies during the Early Republic, (Livy 8.21.11: Anxur, 329 BCE). A centuria was equated with 200 iugera, making 100 minimum plots, reflecting an earlier time when a centuria in the comitia and a centuria in the army was composed of small farmers. Field surveys suggest that small plots of 7 iugura or less were common in the Early Republic. Manius Curius Dentatus, con. 309 BCE, was quoted by Pliny as saying, ?The man must be looked upon as a dangerous citizen, for whom 7 iugera is not enough (NH 18.4). Plots of 7 iugera were supposedly allotted to the people when the Tarquinii were expelled from the City (Pliny 18.4)

1 iugerum = 0.25 hectares = 0.625 acres
2 iugera = 0.5 hect. = 1.25 acres
7 iugera = 4.75 hect. = 4.38 acres

It has been estimated that 15 iugera would be required to support a family using Roman agricultural methods, however that is by modern standards. I recall my nonni had a small city plot that did quite well providing for a family of eleven from a kitchen garden no more than 600 sq. feet, a row of grape arbors, a fruit tree, and a few chickens. All they had to buy was flour, oil and occasionally meat, and their standard of living was above that of a common small farmer in Early Rome. Also a plot of 7 iugera is comparable to the average size of a New England farm in the colonial period. Rome?s small farmers also had use of public pasture lands and could use some public land on which to grow grain. Additionally hunting and foraging provided more than what is included in modern estimates. Leavened bread was not introduced to Rome before 174 BCE (Pliny 18.107). Instead the Romans ate a pottage of various grains, probably flavored with foraged herbs. Stories from imperial times pose a very distant past when acorns rather than grain was used for pottages and to make unleavened bread (Ovid Fasti 4.395-402; Amor. 3.10.11; Met. 5.341; Virgil Geo. 1.147; Pliny16.15). However we can better assume that this was the case at a much later date, in the second century when leavened bread was still a luxury for the very few. We should assume, too, that this portion of the Roman diet came primarily from foraging rather than farming, as did other portions of the Roman diet (Ovid Fasti 4.697; Pliny 24; 25). The public lands, or ager publici, was primarily pasturelands, while in the fourth century there were still vast forests and wilderness in which to hunt and forage. A small farmer might farm his 7 iugera and an additional amount of ager publici as he could work himself, perhaps up to a total of 20-30 iugera, and send his children off with his herds to graze over additional ager publici.

Quite in contrast to such small farms was that offered by Tiberius Gracchus. Gracchus proposed only that the old Lex Licinium of 367 BCE should be enforced. That earlier law set a limit of 500 iugera that a single individual could use from the ager publici . The proposal of Gracchus effected only public lands, not private property, and said that those who had illegally taken possession of more of these public lands than the law allowed could retain 1000 iugera of land, plus an additional 500 iugera for each son up to a total of 2000 iugera. Anything in excess of these amounts was to be broken into allotments of 500 iugera and, rather than given away, all of these estates were to be leased, providing the state with revenue. Supposedly the land commission established by Tiberius Gracchus formed 80,000 new farms, amounting to 4,000,000 iugera..

It should be obvious that Gracchus was not establishing small farms or providing an opportunity for any of the poorer members of Roman society. A single iugerum was the amount of land a man was able to plow in a day with a team of oxen. No family could work such a large plot on its own and although the rents were relatively low the cost of running such an estate of 500 iugera would have been substantial. The annual salary of a common soldier roughly equaled the cost of two house slaves, or maybe five field slaves. The law also specified that a set proportion of workers on these estates had to be hired freedmen at an additional cost. So it is not as though the common assidui could afford to field a workforce for a 500 iugera farm. When colonies were established for veterans their allotments were more in the range of 25-30 iugera and the cost of maintaining such a farm was more in their affordable range. The Gracchan allotments of 500 iugera would therefore appear to have been intended for members of the prima classis and equites. Soldiers returning from the east may very well have brought back with them enough spoils to afford a Gracchan allotment. In that case sale of the spoils was transferred into land, and his status raised from the lower classes into the prima classis. I do not think though that you can assume that this is what happened with a sizeable portion of the 80,000 new farms.

The census of 131BCE showed that there were 318,823 Roman citizens. This represented a drop in population from 337,452 recorded for 159, each census in the intervening years showing a decline. In 125 the number again grew to 394,736. It has been assumed that this increase of 76,000 between 131 and 125 BCE resulted from the Gracchan land distributions. Is that a reasonable assumption? Between 149-46 the Third Punic War and Fourth Macedonian War were fought. This was followed by three years of peace. Sons that would be born to the returning soldiers would have come into their manhood between 128-125. A little baby boom as commonly happens after wars is one way to account for the increase in Rome?s citizenry. The lower requirement to enter the lowest class, reduced from 4000 to 1500 asses in 141 BCE, and the amount of wealth that entered the City following the wars would also be a contributing factor. Slaves brought back from the wars could have been freed in the interim, made citizens, although not generally counted in the census classes. Other factors would have contributed to the population increase. On the other hand, in order to receive a Gracchan allotment one had to already be a Roman citizen, so it cannot be that the Gracchan reform created new citizens.

The view that the Gracchan reforms benefited the poorer classes of Rome, or were intended to do so, simply does not add up. Marcius' 2000 well-to-do families represented less than 0.5% of the Roman citizenry in 100 BCE. The 80,000 who received Gracchan allotments represented 20% of the Roman citizenry in 125 BCE. Rome's total population, however, consisted of more than just citizens. We cannot really relate these figures to a modern society by referring to an upper, middle, and lower class. Rome had seven classes of citizens and a class of partial citizens, and then a class of non-citizens and the still lower population of slaves. Who were effected by the Gracchan reforms at most represented around 10% of the population. In terms of status this group would be a middle class. They were those who had wealth but not the status of a senatorial family, and therefore it points once again to equites who benefited from the Gracchan reforms.