Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-hvd4g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-02T06:53:35.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 4 - Smallholding, Frugality and Market Economy in the Gracchan age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2020

By
Mattia Balbo
Edited by
Ingo Gildenhard  and
Cristiano Viglietti
Ingo Gildenhard
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Cristiano Viglietti
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi, Siena
Get access

Summary

This chapter reconsiders the transformation of smallholding in the late second century BCE in relation to developments within Rome’s political economy in the decades after the Second Punic War, which had profound repercussions on economic activity broadly conceived, perhaps even triggering an ‘economic revolution’. The discussion focuses chiefly on landholding during the Gracchan Age (133–120 BCE), with a specific emphasis on the recurrence of frugal ideals in the political debate arising from the Gracchan reforms and the role of smallholdings in the face of significant changes brought about by the emergence of large market-oriented estates and related developments, such as the rise in the price of land, increase in the number of slaves, the consequences of imperial plunder and tax-farming and the management of the grain supply and subsidies. The chapter pays equal attention to the ideological framework that defined smallholding in the Gracchan age and its practical consequences.

Keywords

frugal idealsGracchan reformgrain supplyimperial exploitationlandholdingmarket economyslavessmallholding
Type
Chapter
Information
Roman Frugality
Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond
 , pp. 213 - 236
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arena, V. (2012) Libertas and the Practice of Politics in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Astin, A.E. (1967) Scipio Aemilianus. Oxford.Google Scholar
Badian, E. (1972) ‘Tiberius Gracchus and the beginning of the Roman revolution’, ANRW I.1: 668–731.Google Scholar
Balbo, M. (2010) ‘La Lex Licinia de modo agrorum: riconsiderazione di un modello storiografico’, RFIC 138(3–4): 265–311.Google Scholar
Balbo, M. (2013) Riformare la res publica. Retroterra sociale e significato politico del tribunato di Tiberio Gracco. Bari.Google Scholar
Balbo, M. (2014) ‘Lex tam acerba: la sanzione per i trasgressori del modus agrorum nella Roma repubblicana’, RFIC 142(1): 75–90.Google Scholar
Balbo, M. (2017) ‘Attività economiche e popolamento rurale nella Cisalpina occidentale in età romana’, in Popolazione e risorse nell’Italia del Nord dalla Romanizzazione ai Longobardi, eds. Lo Cascio, E. and Maiuro, M.. Bari: 357–69.Google Scholar
Beloch, K. J. (1886) Die Bevölkerung der griechisch-römischen Welt. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Briscoe, J. (1974) ‘Supporters and opponents of Tiberius Gracchus’, JRS 64: 125–35.Google Scholar
Brunt, P. A. (1971) Italian Manpower 225 BC–AD 14. Oxford.Google Scholar
Capogrossi Colognesi, L. (2012) Padroni e contadini nell’Italia repubblicana. Roma.Google Scholar
Carcopino, J. (1929) ‘Les Lois agraires des Gracques et la guerre sociale’, BAGB 22: 3–23.Google Scholar
Crawford, M. H. (ed.) (1996) Roman Statutes. London.Google Scholar
de Ligt, L. (2012) Peasants, Citizens and Soldiers: Studies in the Demographic History of Roman Italy 225 BC–AD 100. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Nardis, M. (2009) ‘Plauto, Catone e la “villa schiavistica”’, in Agricoltura e scambi nell’Italia tardo-repubblicana, eds. Carlsen, J. and Lo Cascio, E.. Bari: 141–55.Google Scholar
de Neeve, P. W. (1984) Colonus: Private Farm-Tenancy in Roman Italy during the Republic and the Early Principate. Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Finley, M. I. (1976) ‘Private farm tenancy in Italy before Diocletian’, in Studies in Roman Property, ed. Finley, M. I.. Cambridge: 103–21.Google Scholar
Forsén, B. (1991) Lex Licinia Sextia de modo agrorum – Fiction or Reality? Helsinki.Google Scholar
Gabba, E. (1973) Esercito e società nella tarda repubblica romana. Firenze.Google Scholar
Gabba, E. (1976) Republican Rome, the Army and the Allies, trans. Cuff, P. J.. Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Gabba, E. (1977) ‘Considerazioni sulla decadenza della piccola proprietà contadina nell’Italia centro-meridionale del II sec. a.C.’, Ktema 2: 269–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabba, E. (1979) ‘Sulle strutture agrarie dell’Italia romana fra III e I sec. a.C.’, in Strutture agrarie e allevamento transumante nell’Italia romana (III-I sec. a.C.), eds. Gabba, E. and Pasquinucci, M.. Pisa: 15–73.Google Scholar
Gabba, E. (1990) ‘Il tentativo dei Gracchi’, in Storia di Roma, II.1, eds. Clemente, G., Coarelli, F. and Gabba, E.. Torino: 671–89.Google Scholar
Gargola, D.J. (2008) ‘The Gracchan reform and Appian’s representation of an agrarian crisis’, in People, Land and Politics: Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italy, 300 BC–AD 14, eds. de Ligt, L. and Northwood, S.. Leiden: 487–518.Google Scholar
Garnsey, P. and Rathbone, D. (1985) ‘The background to the grain law of Gaius Gracchus’, JRS 75: 20–5.Google Scholar
Guariglia, E. and Panebianco, V. (1937) ‘Termini graccani rinvenuti nell’antica Lucania’, RSS 1: 58–91.Google Scholar
Hopkins, K. (1978) Conquerors and Slaves. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hopkins, K. (1995/1996) ‘Rome, taxes, rents and trade’, Kodai 6/7: 41–75.Google Scholar
Kay, P. (2014) Rome’s Economic Revolution. Oxford.Google Scholar
Latifundium (1995) = Du latifundium au latifondo. Un héritage de Rome, une création médiévale ou moderne? Actes de la table ronde internationale (17–19 décembre 1992). Paris.Google Scholar
Launaro, A. (2011) Peasants and Slaves: The Rural Population of Roman Italy (200 BC to AD 100). Cambridge.Google Scholar
Launaro, A. (2015) ‘The nature of the villa economy’, in Ownership and Exploitation of Land and Natural Resources in the Roman World, eds. Erdkamp, P., Verboven, K. and Zuiderhoek, A.. Oxford: 173–86.Google Scholar
Lo Cascio, E. (1982) ‘Spesa militare, spesa dello stato e volume delle emissioni nella tarda repubblica’, AIIN 29: 75–97.Google Scholar
Lo Cascio, E. (1988) ‘Ancora sui censi minimi delle cinque classi “serviane”’, Athenaeum n.s. 66: 273–302.Google Scholar
Lo Cascio, E. (1994) ‘The size of the Roman population: Beloch and the meaning of the Augustan census figures’, JRS 84: 23–40.Google Scholar
Lo Cascio, E. (2008) ‘Roman census figures in the second century BC and the property qualification of the fifth class’, in People, Land and Politics. Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italy, 300 BC – AD 14, eds. de Ligt, L. and Northwood, S.. Leiden: 239–56.Google Scholar
Lo Cascio, E. (2009) Crescita e declino. Studi di storia dell’economia romana. Roma.Google Scholar
Lo Cascio, E. (2013) ‘Roma come “mercato comune del genere umano”’, in Elio Aristide e la legittimazione greca dell’impero di Roma, eds. Desideri, P. and Fontanella, F.. Bologna: 185–201.Google Scholar
Maiuro, M. (2017) ‘Il monte dei cocci’, in Storia mondiale dell’Italia, ed. Giardina, A.. Roma–Bari: 146–9.Google Scholar
Mantovani, D. (1997) ‘L’occupazione dell’ager publicus e le sue regole prima del 367 a.C., Athenaeum 85(2): 575–98.Google Scholar
Marzano, A. (2007) Roman Villas in Central Italy: A Social and Economic History. Leiden and Boston.Google Scholar
Montesquieu, C. de Secondat, Baron de (1734) Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence. Lausanne.Google Scholar
Montesquieu, C. de Secondat, Baron de (1768) De l’esprit des lois, rev. edn. London.Google Scholar
Montesquieu, C. de Secondat, Baron de (1965) Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline, trans. D. Lowenthal. New York and London.Google Scholar
Rathbone, D. (2003) ‘The control and exploitation of ager publicus in Italy under the Roman Republic’, in Tâches publiques et entreprise privée dans le monde romain, ed. Aubert, J.-J.. Neuchâtel: 135–78.Google Scholar
Rathbone, D. (2008) ‘Poor peasants and silent sherds’, in People, Land and Politics. Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italy, 300 BC–AD 14, eds. de Ligt, L. and Northwood, S.. Leiden: 305–32.Google Scholar
Rich, J. (1983) ‘The supposed Roman manpower shortage of the later second century B.C.’, Historia 32: 287–331.Google Scholar
Rich, J. (2008) ‘Lex Licinia, Lex Sempronia: B.G. Niebuhr and the limitation of landholding in the Roman Republic’, in People, Land and Politics. Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italy, 300 BC–AD 14, eds. de Ligt, L. and Northwood, S.. Leiden: 519–72.Google Scholar
Richardson, J.S. (1980) ‘The ownership of Roman land: Tiberius Gracchus and the Italians’, JRS 70: 1–11.Google Scholar
Roselaar, S. T. (2008) ‘Regional variations in the use of the ager publicus’, in People, Land and Politics. Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italy, 300 BC – AD 14, eds. de Ligt, L. and Northwood, S.. Leiden: 573–602.Google Scholar
Roselaar, S. T. (2010) Public Land in the Roman Republic: A Social end Economic History of Ager Publicus in Italy, 396–89 BC. Oxford.Google Scholar
Roselaar, S. T. (2015) ‘Italian allies and access to ager Romanus in the Roman Republic’, MEFRA 127(2), http://mefra.revues.org/3055 (last accessed 9 February 2020).Google Scholar
Sacchi, O. (2006) Regime della terra e imposizione fondiaria nell’età dei Gracchi. Testo e commento storico-giuridico della legge agraria del 111 a.C. Napoli.Google Scholar
Santangelo, F. (2019) Roma repubblicana. Una storia in quaranta vite. Roma.Google Scholar
Tarpin, M. (2014) ‘Strangers in Paradise. Latins (and other non-Romans) in colonial context: a short story of territorial complexity’, in Roman Republican Colonization: New Perspectives from Archaeology and Ancient History, eds. Stek, T. D. and Pelgrom, J.. Rome: 161–91.Google Scholar
Tibiletti, G. (1948) ‘Il possesso dell’ager publicus e le norme de modo agrorum sino ai Gracchi’, I–III, Athenaeum n.s. 26: 173–236.Google Scholar
Tibiletti, G. (1949) ‘Il possesso dell’ager publicus e le norme de modo agrorum sino ai Gracchi’, IV–VI, Athenaeum n.s. 27: 3–42.Google Scholar
Tibiletti, G. (1950) ‘Ricerche di storia agraria romana’, Athenaeum n.s. 28: 183–266.Google Scholar
Tibiletti, G. (2007) Studi di storia agraria romana, ed. Baroni, A.. Trento.Google Scholar
Toynbee, A. J. (1965) Hannibal’s Legacy: The Hannibalic War’s Effects on Roman Life. London.Google Scholar
Viglietti, C. (2011) Il limite del bisogno: Antropologia economica di Roma arcaica. Bologna.Google Scholar
Viglietti, C. (2014) ‘Economia’, in Con i Romani: Un’antropologia della cultura antica, eds. Bettini, M. and Short, W. M.. Bologna: 215–48.Google Scholar
Virlouvet, C. (1994) ‘Les lois frumentaires d’époque républicaine’, in Le ravitaillement en blé de Rome et des centres urbains des débuts de la République jusqu’au Haut Empire. Rome and Naples: 11–29.Google Scholar
Zecchini, G. (2012) ‘L’evoluzione della élite popularis dai Gracchi a Cesare’, in Del municipio a la corte. La renovación de las élites romanas, ed. Caballos Rufino, A.. Sevilla: 19–35.Google Scholar
Zecchini, G. (2016) ‘Ideologia suntuaria romana’, MEFRA 128(1), http://mefra.revues.org/3168 (last accessed 18 July 2017).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×