The ''ager publicus'' (; ) is the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

name for the state land of

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

. It was usually acquired via the means of expropriation from enemies of Rome.

History

In the earliest periods of Roman expansion in central Italy, the ''ager publicus'' was used for Roman and (after 338 BC) Latin colonies. Later tradition held that as far back as the 5th century BC, the patrician and

plebeian In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of the gro ...

classes disputed the rights of the rich to exploit the land, and in 367 BC two

Plebeian Tribunes Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune () was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of the Roman Senate ...

, Gaius Licinius Solo and Lucius Sextius Sextinus Lateranus promulgated a law which limited the amount of the ''ager publicus'' to be held by any individual to 500 iugera, roughly . In the half century following the Battle of Telamon ( BC), the Romans fully absorbed

Cisalpine Gaul Cisalpine Gaul (, also called ''Gallia Citerior'' or ''Gallia Togata'') was the name given, especially during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, to a region of land inhabited by Celts (Gauls), corresponding to what is now most of northern Italy. Afte ...

, adding huge swathes of land to the ''ager publicus'', land which was more often than not given to new Latin colonies or to small freeholders. In the south of Italy, huge tracts of newly re-incorporated lands remained ager publicus, but tended to be leased out to wealthy citizens in return for rents (although these rents were usually not collected), often ignoring the Laws of 367. This led to the rapid growth of '' latifundia'', huge estates worked by slaves. Other ager publicus remained with the Italian allies from whom it had been confiscated. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus attempted to address some of these violations in 133 BC, by reimposing the limit of 500 iugera and distributing excess land to poor citizens. A similar move by his brother Gaius Sempronius Gracchus in 123 BC failed because of his death the following year. In 111 BC, a new law was passed which allowed individual smallholders to assume ownership of their part of the ''ager publicus''. But the resistance of the rich landowners made this law impotent and the result of the land reforms of the Gracchi was that rich Romans were left with their properties and were released from paying rent.AGER PUBLICUS https://www2.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php?regexp=AGER+PUBLICUS&method=standard In the

Social War (91–87 BC) The Social War (from Latin , "war of the allies"), also called the Italian War or the Marsic War, was fought largely from 91 to 88 BC between the Roman Republic and several of its autonomous allies () in Roman Italy, Italy. Some of the ...

Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (, ; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman of the late Roman Republic. A great commander and ruthless politician, Sulla used violence to advance his career and his co ...

the Ager Publicus received a vast increase by proscriptions and confiscations. By the Imperial period, much of the ''ager publicus'' in Italy had been distributed to the veterans of generals such as Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Gaius Julius Caesar and

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Rom ...

, so that all that remained were the properties of individual cities and common pasture lands. In the provinces, the ''ager publicus'' was huge, and came under the ownership of the emperor. However, in reality, almost all of it was under private occupation.

References

*Drummond, Andrew, "Licinius Stolo, Gaius. Sextius Sextinus Lateranus, Lucius" in Simon Hornblower & Anthony Spawforth (eds.), ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 3rd Edition, (Oxford, 1999), pp. 859–60 * Lewis, Andrew Dominic Edwards, "ager publicus" in Simon Hornblower & Anthony Spawforth (eds.), ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 3rd Edition, (Oxford, 1999), p. 39 *Roselaar, Saskia T., ''Public land in the Roman Republic: a social and economic history of the ager publicus, 396-89 BC'' (Oxford, 2010) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ager Publicus Society of ancient Rome

History

See also

References