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 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.


I agree with most of this but there are a few points I wanted to make. You say they were broken up into 500 iugra allotments, but should that be a cap and not a minimum?

Even if they set it up where they would only allot 500 iugra plots, and the middle class were the ones to use it, I still think the lower classes would benifit from it. As you mentioned freedmen or above were allowed to work the land, and this gave an avenue for making money where previously only slaves would be working these fields. Perhaps over time these men could save their money and buy their own small plots. Its like Reagan's 'trickle-down' theory to economics almost!