Agrarian Laws, enactments framed at various times by the Romans to regulate the ager publicus, or public domain. In the first epoch of the growth of Rome, when the city had not yet extended beyond the Palatine hill, the whole soil of the state was ager publicus, or undivided public property; and from the state, or the populns Bomanus, consisting exclusively of citizens, every citizen received a share for his private use. In principle all the land was, therefore, ager publicus, and the citizen could only acquire possession as tenant at will of the state; but in course of time the descendants of the original founders, or the patricians, transformed these primitive concessions into an absolute right, called in the Roman law de jure quiritio. Still the principle remained, and was recognized during the whole epoch of the republic, that all lands and booty acquired by conquest were acquired for the state, and could only become the property of individuals through the cession to them of the rights of the state.

As conquest increased the public possessions, and the class of plebeians was formed, the Roman people gave them lands in the ager pub-licus, as private property, on condition of their paying a tribute, and undertaking other public services; but the patricians always preserved their ancient right of receiving in possession and using parts of the public domain, on paying to the public treasury a tithe of its product. From the first epoch of Roman society, lands thus held could pass as an inheritance to children, and were even sold under this precarious tenure, though in principle the state could always resume their possession. These public lands were also, on their com-quest, often transformed into common pasturage. Such lands had various technical names, as occupati, oceupatorii, concessit arcifinales, etc.; but the general name was that of possessions, and the payment or tithe given to the state for their use was called fructus or vecti-galia. The possession of all such lands by individuals was permissive, and differed wholly from the absolute right of property, by which each Roman citizen, whether an original patrician or one of the plebeians who were first admitted to private and then to public rights, held landed property by the various titles and denominations known in the Roman law.

But the patricians, the original shareholders in the public domain, became by long use accustomed to consider their grants as absolute property, especially as they had improved them in various ways; and accordingly they often refused to pay the tithe due to the treasury. In the early period of the republic, previous to the twelve tables, Spurius Cassius, a patrician, on becoming consul, procured a law that some parts of the public domain, long before conquered, but occupied by the patricians, should be surrendered to the state and assigned to the necessitous citizens. The patricians resisted it, and the law remained a dead letter. The patricians not only prevented new divisions of the public lands, but by violence or usury acquired those of the plebeians. This led to agitation for a revival of the law of Spurius Cassius, which the celebrated decemvir Appius Claudius strongly opposed. Next, the invasion of the Gauls under Brennus ruined the numerous small free tenants and freeholders, and obliged them to sell their landed property to the wealthy patricians. Those among the small freeholds which were not thus absorbed were overwhelmed by the surrounding large estates.

The keeping of large flocks of cattle ruined'the saltus publici, or common pasture lands, and in fact excluded the small farmers from them. This abuse occasioned the publication, in 367 B. C, of the Licinian law (roga-tiones Liciniae), so called from Licinius Stolo, its originator. This law is considered as forming the basis and containing the essence of the agrarian idea. The technical name of this law was Be Modo Agri. It prescribed, under a penalty of heavy fines, that no one should possess more than 500 jugera (about 330 acres) of the public domain; and that no one should send to graze on the public pastures more than 100 large or 500 small animals. This law was put in force for a brief period, after which it was neglected for nearly two centuries, when it was renewed by Tiberius Gracchus, with some additions and modifications in favor of the wealthy, who were mostly patricians. Any one having one or two sons could hold from 250 to 500 jugera in the public domain above his original right, as established by the Licinian law.

The attempt to execute these laws occasioned the tragical end of the two Gracchi (133 and 121 B. C). In succeeding times, an agrarian law was mooted by a certain Saturninus, having for its object the distribution of lands conquered in Cisalpine Gaul. Another was proposed by Drusus to distribute all the conquered lands among the poor; and in the time of Cicero, Servians Rullus proposed that the public domains out of Italy conquered by Pompey should be sold, and out of the proceeds lands bought in Italy for needy citizens. Not one of all the Roman agrarian laws was ever executed, and not one of them had that confiscatory or levelling character so frequently attributed to them. Not one of these laws aimed at the equal division of landed property owned by individuals in their own absolute right, or intended any limitation upon such ownership.