On the Agrarian Law (M. Tullius Cicero)

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	On the Agrarian Law Author: M. Tullius Cicero	Translator: C. D. Yonge
106	sed quod ego nondum statuo mihi esse dicendum , vos tamen id potestis cum animis vestris cogitare ; unum hoc certe videor mihi verissime posse dicere : tum cum haberet haec res publica Luscinos , Calatinos , Acidinos , homines non solum honoribus populi rebusque gestis verum etiam patientia paupertatis ornatos , et tum cum erant Catones , Phili , Laelii , quorum sapientiam temperantiamque in publicis privatisque , forensibus domesticisque rebus perspexeratis , tamen huiusce modi res commissa nemini est ut idem iudicaret et venderet et hoc faceret per quinquennium toto in orbe terrarum idemque agros vectigalis populi Romani abalienaret et , cum summam tantae pecuniae nullo teste sibi ipse ex sua voluntate fecisset , tum denique emeret a quibus vellet quod videretur .	But, that which I have made up my mind that I ought not to say, yet you can still form an idea of in your minds. This one thing at all events I appear to myself to be able to say with the greatest truth,—that in former times when this republic had the Luscini, the Calatini, the Acidini, men adorned not only with the honours conferred on them by the people, and by their own great exploits, but also by the patience with which they endured poverty; and then also when the Catos, and the Phili, and Laelii lived, men whose wisdom and moderation you had obtained a thorough knowledge of in public, and private, and forensic, and domestic affairs; still such a charge as this was entrusted to no one, so as to allow the same man to be both judge and seller, and to be so for five years over the whole world, and also to have power to alienate the lands of the Roman people from which their revenues are derived; and when by these means he had amassed a vast sum of money according to his own pleasure, without any witness, then he was to buy whatever he pleased from any one he pleased.
107	committite vos nunc , Quirites , his hominibus haec omnia quos odorari hunc xviratum suspicamini ; reperietis partem esse eorum quibus ad habendum , partem quibus ad consumendum nihil satis esse videatur .	Now then do you, O Romans, commit all these things to these men whom you suspect of aiming at this decemvirate; you will find some of them to whom nothing appears sufficient to possess, some to whom nothing seems sufficient to squander.
108	hic ego iam illud quod expeditissimum est ne disputo quidem , Quirites , non esse hanc nobis a maioribus relictam consuetudinem ut emantur agri a privatis quo plebes publice deducatur ; omnibus legibus agris publicis privatos esse deductos . huiusce modi me aliquid ab hoc horrido ac truce tribuno plebis exspectasse confiteor ; hanc vero emendi et vendendi quaestuosissimam ac turpissimam mercaturam alienam actione tribunicia , alienam dignitate populi Romani semper putavi .	Here I will not discuss what is sufficiently notorious, O Romans, or argue that it is not a custom handed down to you from your ancestors, that lands may be bought from private individuals for the purpose of settling portions of the common people in them by the public authority; or that there are not many laws by which private individuals have been established in the public domains. I will admit that I expected something of this sort from this illiterate and ill-mannered tribune of the people; but this most profitable and at the same time most discreditable traffic in buying and selling, I have always thought wholly inconsistent with the duty of a tribune, wholly inconsistent with the dignity of the Roman people.
109	iubet agros emi . primum quaero quos agros et quibus in locis ? nolo suspensam et incertam plebem Romanam obscura spe et caeca exspectatione pendere . Albanus ager est , Setinus , Privernas , Fundanus , Vescinus , Falernus , Literninus , Cumanus , Nucerinus . audio . ab alia porta Capenas , Faliscus , Sabinus ager , Reatinus ; ab alia Venafranus , Allifanus , Trebulanus . habes tantam pecuniam qua hosce omnis agros et ceteros horum similis non modo emere verum etiam coacervare possis ; cur eos non definis neque nominas , ut saltem deliberare plebes Romana possit quid intersit sua , quid expediat , quantum tibi in emendis et in vendendis rebus committendum putet ? ' definio ,' inquit , ' Italiam .' satis certa regio . etenim quantulum interest utrum in Massici radices , an in Silam silvam deducamini ?	He orders that lands be sold. First of all I ask, What lands? in what situations? I do not wish the Roman people to be kept in suspense and uncertainty with obscure hopes and ignorant expectation. There is the Alban, and the Setino, and the Privernate, and the Fundan, and the Vescine, and the Falernian district; there is the district of Linternum, and Cuma, and Casinum. I hear. Going out at the other gate there is the Capenate, and Faliscan, and Sabine territory; there are the lands of Reati, and Venafrum, and Allifae, and Trebula. You have money enough to be able not only to buy all these lands and others like them, but even to surround them with a ring fence.
110	age , non definis locum ; quid ? naturam agri ? ' vero ,' inquit , ' qvi arari avt coli possit .' ' qui possit arari ,' inquit , ' aut coli ,' non qui aratus aut cultus sit . Vtrum haec lex est , an tabula Veratianae auctionis ? in qua scriptum fuisse aiunt : ' Ivgera cc in qvibvs olivetvm fieri potest , ivgera ccc vbi institvi vineae possvnt .' hoc tu emes ista innumerabili pecunia quod arari aut coli possit ? quod solum tam exile et macrum est quod aratro perstringi non possit , aut quod est tam asperum saxetum in quo agricolarum cultus non elaboret ? ' idcirco ,' inquit , ' agros nominare non possum quia tangam nullum ab invito .' hoc , Quirites , multo est quaestuosius quam si ab invito sumeret ; inibitur enim ratio quaestus de vestra pecunia , et tum denique ager emetur cum idem expediet emptori et venditori .	Why do you not define them, nor name them, so that at least the Roman people may be able to consider what its own interests are-what is desirable for it—how much trust it thinks it desirable to repose in you in the matter of buying and selling things ? I do define Italy, says he. It is a district sufficiently marked out. Indeed, how little difference does it make whether you are led down to the roots of the Massic Hill, or into some other part of Italy, or somewhere else! Come, you do not define the exact spot. What do you mean? Do you mean the nature of the land? But, says he, the law does say, “which can be ploughed or cultivated.” Which can be ploughed or cultivated, he says; not, which has been ploughed or cultivated. Is this now a law, or is it an advertisement of some sale of Neratius ; in whose descriptions people used to find such sentences as these:—“Two hundred acres in which an olive garden may be made. Three hundred acres where vines can be planted.” Is this what you are going to buy with all your countless sums of money,—something which can be ploughed up or cultivated? Why, what soil is there so thin and miserable that it cannot be broken up by a plough? or what is there which is such a complete bed of stones that the skill of an agriculturist cannot get something out of it? Oh but, says he, I cannot name any lands positively, because I touch none against the will of the owner. This also is much more profitable than if one took land from a man against his will. For a calculation of gain will be entered into with reference to your money, and then only will land be sold when the sale is advantageous to both buyer and seller.
111	sed videte vim legis agrariae . ne ei quidem qui agros publicos possident decedent de possessione , nisi erunt deducti optima condicione et pecunia maxima . conversa ratio . antea cum erat a tribuno plebis mentio legis agrariae facta , continuo qui agros publicos aut qui possessiones invidiosas tenebant extimescebant ; haec lex eos homines fortunis locupletat , invidia liberat . quam multos enim , Quirites , existimatis esse qui latitudinem possessionum tueri , qui invidiam Sullanorum agrorum ferre non possint , qui vendere cupiant , emptorem non reperiant , perdere iam denique illos agros ratione aliqua velint ? qui paulo ante diem noctemque tribunicium nomen horrebant , vestram vim metuebant , mentionem legis agrariae pertimescebant , ei nunc etiam ultro rogabuntur atque orabuntur ut agros partim publicos , partim plenos invidiae , plenos periculi quanti ipsi velint xviris tradant . atque hoc carmen hic tribunus plebis non vobis , sed sibi intus canit .	But now see the force of this agrarian law. Even those men who are in occupation of the public domains will not quit possession, unless they are tempted by favourable conditions and by a large sum of money. Matters are changed. Formerly when mention of an agrarian law was made by a tribune of the people, immediately every one who was in occupation of any public lands, or who had any possessions the tenure of which was in the least unpopular, began to be alarmed. But this law enriches those men with fortunes, and relieves them from unpopularity. For how many men, O Romans, do you suppose there are, who are unable to stand under the extent of their possessions, who are unable to bear the unpopularity incurred by the ownership of lands granted by Sulla? who wish to sell them, but cannot find a purchaser? who, in fact, would be glad to get rid of those lands by any means whatever? They who, a little while ago, were in constant dread, day and night, of the name of a tribune; who feared your power, dreaded every mention of an agrarian law; they now will be begged and entreated to he so good as to give up to the decemvirs those lands which are partly public property, the possession of which is full of unpopularity and danger, at their own price. And this song this tribune of the people is singing now, not to yell, but in his own heart to himself.
112	habet socerum , virum optimum , qui tantum agri in illis rei publicae tenebris occupavit quantum concupivit . huic subvenire volt succumbenti iam et oppresso , Sullanis oneribus gravi , sua lege , ut liceat illi invidiam deponere , pecuniam condere . et vos non dubitatis quin vectigalia vestra vendatis plurimo maiorum vestrorum sanguine et sudore quaesita , ut Sullanos possessores divitiis augeatis , periculo liberetis ?	He has a father-in-law, a most excellent man, who in those dark times of the republic got as much land as he wanted. He now seeing him yielding, oppressed weighed down with the burdens which Sulla put upon him, wishes to come to his assistance with this law of his, so as to enable him to get rid of the odium attached to him, and to get a sum of money too. And will not you hesitate to sell your revenues, acquired by the profuse expenditure of labour and blood on the part of your ancestors, for the purpose of heaping more riches on the landowners who have become so through Sulla, and of releasing them from danger?
113	nam ad hanc emptionem xviralem duo genera agrorum spectant , Quirites . Eorum unum propter invidiam domini fugiunt , alterum propter vastitatem . Sullanus ager a certis hominibus latissime continuatus tantam habet invidiam ut veri ac fortis tribuni plebis stridorem unum perferre non possit . hic ager omnis , quoquo pretio coemptus erit , tamen ingenti pecunia nobis inducetur . alterum genus agrorum propter sterilitatem incultum , propter pestilentiam vastum atque desertum emetur ab eis qui eos vident sibi esse , si non vendiderint , relinquendos . et nimirum id est quod ab hoc tribuno plebis dictum est in senatu , urbanam plebem nimium in re publica posse ; exhauriendam esse ; hoc enim verbo est usus , quasi de aliqua sentina ac non de optimorum civium genere loqueretur .	For there are two kinds of lands concerned, O Romans, in this purchase of the decemvirs. One of them the owners avoid on account of its unpopularity; the other on account of its miserable condition. The land seized and distributed by Sulla, and extended as far as possible by particular individuals, has so much unpopularity attached to it, that it cannot bear the rustle of a genuine fearless tribune of the people. All this land, at whatever price it is purchased, will be returned to you at a great price. There is another sort of lands—uncultivated on account of their barrenness, desolate and deserted on account of the unhealthiness of the situation—which will be bought of those men, who see that they must abandon them if they do not sell them. And in truth, that is what was said by this tribune of the people in the senate,—that the common people of the city had too much influence in the republic; that it must be drained off. For this is the expression which he used; as if he were speaking of some sewer, and not of a class of excellent citizens.
114	vos vero , Quirites , si me audire voltis , retinete istam possessionem gratiae , libertatis , suffragiorum , dignitatis , urbis , fori , ludorum , festorum dierum , ceterorum omnium commodorum , nisi forte mavoltis relictis his rebus atque hac luce rei publicae in Sipontina siccitate aut in Salpinorum plenis pestilentiae finibus Rullo duce conlocari . aut dicat quos agros empturus sit ; ostendat et quid et quibus daturus sit . Vt vero , cum omnis urbis , agros , vectigalia , regna vendiderit , tum harenam aliquam aut paludes emat , id vos potestis , quaeso , concedere ? quamquam illud est egregium quod hac lege ante omnia veneunt , ante pecuniae coguntur et coacervantur quam gleba una ematur . deinde emi iubet , ab invito vetat .	But do you, O Romans, if you will be guided by me, preserve your present possession of popularity, of liberty, of your votes, of your dignity, of the city, of the forum, of the games, of the days of festivals, and of all your other enjoyments. Unless, by chance, you prefer leaving all these things and this light of the republic, to be settled in the midst of the droughts of Sipontum, or in the pestilential districts of Salapia, under the leadership of Rullus. But let him tell us what lands he is going to buy; let him show what he is going to give, and to whom he is going to give it. But can you possibly, tell me, allow him the power of selling any imaginable city, or land, or revenue, or kingdom that he likes, and then buying some tract of sand or some swamp? Although this is a very remarkable point, that according to this law everything is to be sold, all the money is to be collected and amassed together, before one perch of ground is bought. Then the law orders him to proceed to buy; but forbids any purchases to be made against the inclination or the owner.
115	quaero , si qui velint vendere non fuerint , quid pecuniae fiet ? referre in aerarium lex vetat , exigi prohibet . igitur pecuniam omnem xviri tenebunt , vobis ager non emetur ; vectigalibus abalienatis , sociis vexatis , regibus atque omnibus gentibus exinanitis illi pecunias habebunt , vos agros non habebitis . ' facile ,' inquit , ' adducentur pecuniae magnitudine ut velint vendere .' ergo ea lex est qua nostra vendamus quanti possimus , aliena emamus quanti possessores velint .	I ask now, suppose there is no one who is willing to sell, what is to become of the money? The law says it is not to be brought into the treasury. It forbids its being refunded. The decemvirs, then, will keep all that money. Land will not be bought for you. After having alienated your revenues, harassed your allies, drained the confederate kings and all nations of their whole property, they will have the money, and you will not have the lands. Oh, says he, they will easily be induced by the magnitude of the sums offered to sell the lands. Then the effect of the law is to be thus: that we are to sell our property at whatever price we can get for it; and that we are to buy other men's property at whatever price they choose to put upon it.
116	atque in hos agros qui hac lege empti sint colonias ab his xviris deduci iubet . quid ? omnisne locus eius modi est ut nihil intersit rei publicae , colonia deducatur in eum locum necne , an est locus qui coloniam postulet , est qui plane recuset ? quo in genere sicut in ceteris rei publicae partibus est operae pretium diligentiam maiorum recordari , qui colonias sic idoneis in locis contra suspicionem periculi conlocarunt ut esse non oppida Italiae , sed propugnacula imperi viderentur . hi deducent colonias in eos agros quos emerint ; etiamne si rei publicae non expediat ?	And does the law order men to be conducted as settlers by those decemvirs, into those lands which have been bought in accordance with the provisions of this law? What? Is not the whole plan of such a nature that it does not make any difference to the republic whether a colony is led into that place or not? Is it a place which requires a colony? [a place which refuses one?] And in this class of places, as in the other parts of the republic, it is worthwhile to recollect the diligence exhibited by our ancestors; who established colonies in such suitable places to guard against all suspicion of danger, that they appeared to be not so much towns of Italy as bulwarks of the empire. These men are going to lead colonies into those lands which they have bought. Will they do so, even if it be not for the interests of the republic to do so?
117	' et in qvae loca praeterea videbitvr .' quid igitur est causae quin coloniam in Ianiculum possint deducere et suum praesidium in capite atque cervicibus nostris conlocare ? tu non definias quot colonias , in quae loca , quo numero colonorum deduci velis , tu occupes locum quem idoneum ad vim tuam iudicaris , compleas numero , confirmes praesidio quo velis , populi Romani vectigalibus atque omnibus copiis ipsum populum Romanum coerceas , opprimas , redigas in istam xviralem dicionem ac potestatem ?	“And into whatever places besides they shall think fit.” What is the reason, therefore, that they may not be able to settle a colony on the Janiculan Hill; and to place a garrison of their own for their own protection on your heads and necks? Will you not define how many colonies you choose to have led forth, into what districts they are to be led, and of what number of colonists they are to consist? Will you occupy a place which you consider suitable for the violence which perhaps you are meditating? Will you complete the number of the colony, and will you strengthen it by whatever garrison you may think advisable? Will you employ the revenues and all the resources of the Roman people to coerce and oppress the Roman people itself, and to bring it under the dominion and power of those intolerable decemvirs?
118	Vt vero totam Italiam suis praesidiis obsidere atque occupare cogitet , quaeso , Quirites , cognoscite . permittit xviris ut in omnia municipia , in omnis colonias totius Italiae colonos deducant quos velint , eisque colonis agros dari iubet . num obscure maiores opes quam libertas vestra pati potest , et maiora praesidia quaeruntur , num obscure regnum constituitur , num obscure libertas vestra tollitur ? nam cum idem omnem pecuniam , maximam multitudinem obtinebunt , idem totam Italiam suis opibus obsidebunt , idem vestram libertatem suis praesidiis et coloniis interclusam tenebunt , quae spes tandem , quae facultas recuperandae vestrae libertatis relinquetur ?	But I beg you now, O Romans, to take notice how he is planning to besiege and occupy all Italy with his garrison. He permits the decemvirs to lead colonists, whomsoever he may choose to select, into every municipality and into every colony in all Italy; and he orders lands to be assigned to those colonists. Is there any obscurity here in the way in which greater powers and greater defences than your liberty can tolerate are sought after? Is there any obscurity here in the manner in which kingly power is established? Is there any disguise about your liberty being wholly destroyed? For when it is one and the same body of men who with their resources lay siege, as it were, to all the riches and all the population,—that is to say, to all Italy,—and who propose to hold all your liberties in blockade by their garrisons and colonies,—what hope, yes, what possibility even is left to you of ever recovering your liberty?
119	at enim ager Campanus hac lege dividetur orbi terrae pulcherrimus et Capuam colonia deducetur , urbem amplissimam atque ornatissimam . quid ad haec possumus dicere ? de commodo prius vestro dicam , Quirites ; deinde ad amplitudinem et dignitatem revertar , ut , si quis agri aut oppidi bonitate delectatur , ne quid exspectet , si quem rei indignitas commovet , ut huic simulatae largitioni resistat . ac primum de oppido dicam , si quis est forte quem Capua magis quam Roma delectet . V milia colonorum Capuam scribi iubet ; ad hunc numerum quingenos sibi singuli sumunt .	But the Campanian district, the most fertile section of the whole world, is to be divided in accordance with the provisions of this law; and a colony is to be led to Capua, a most honourable and beautiful city. But what can we say to this? I will speak first of your advantage, O Romans. Then I will recur to the question of honour and dignity; so that, if any one takes particular pleasure in the excellence of any town or any district, he may not expect anything; and if any one is influenced by the idea of the dignity of the business, he may resist this fictitious liberality. And first of all I will speak of the town, in case there is any one whose fancy is more taken with Capua than with Rome. He orders five thousand colonists to be enrolled for the purpose of being settled at Capua; and to make up this number, each of the decemvirs is to choose five hundred men.
120	quaeso , nolite vosmet ipsos consolari ; vere et diligenter considerate . num vobis aut vestri similibus integris , quietis , otiosis hominibus in hoc numero locum fore putatis ? si est omnibus vobis maiori ve vestrum parti , quamquam me vester honos vigilare dies atque noctes et intentis oculis omnis rei publicae partis intueri iubet , tamen paulisper , si ita commodum vestrum fert , conivebo . sed si v hominum milibus ad vim , facinus caedemque delectis locus atque urbs quae bellum facere atque instruere possit quaeritur , tamenne patiemini vestro nomine contra vos firmari opes , armari praesidia , urbis , agros , copias comparari ?	I entreat you, do not deceive yourselves about this matter. Consider it in its true light, and with due care. Do you think that in this number there will be room for you yourselves, or for any men like you—quiet, easy men? If there be room for all of you, or even for the greater part of you—although my regard for your honour compels me to keep awake day and night, and to watch with eager eyes every part of the republic—still I will close my eyes for a time, if your advantage will be at all promoted by my doing so. But, if a place and a city is being looked out for five thousand men, picked out as fit instruments for violence, and atrocity, and slaughter, from which they may be able to make war, and which may be able to equip them properly for war,—will you still suffer a power to be raised and garrisons to be armed in your own name against yourselves? Will you allow cities and lands and forces to be arrayed against your interest?
121	nam agrum quidem Campanum quem vobis ostentant ipsi concupiverunt ; deducent suos , quorum nomine ipsi teneant et fruantur ; coement praeterea ; ista dena iugera continuabunt . nam si dicent per legem id non licere , ne per Corneliam quidem licet ; at videmus , ut longinqua mittamus , agrum Praenestinum a paucis possideri . neque istorum pecuniis quicquam aliud deesse video nisi eius modi fundos quorum subsidio familiarum magnitudines et Cumanorum ac Puteolanorum praediorum sumptus sustentare possint . quod si vestrum commodum spectat , veniat et coram mecum de agri Campani divisione disputet .	For they themselves have desired the Campanian district which they hold out a hope of to you. They will lead thither their own friends, in whose name they themselves may occupy it and enjoy it. Besides all this, they will make purchases; they will add the other ten acres to their present estate. For if they say that that is not lawful by the law; by the Cornelian law it certainly is not. But we see (to say nothing about lands at a distance) that the district of Praeneste is occupied by a few people. And I do not see that anything is wanting to their fortunes, except farms of such a description that they may be able by the supplies which they derive from them to support their very large households, and the expense of their farms near Cumae and Puteoli. But if he be thinking of what is for your advantage, then let him come, and let him discuss with me, face to face, the decision of the Campanian district.
122	quaesivi ex eo Kalendis Ianuariis quibus hominibus et quem ad modum illum agrum esset distributurus . respondit a Romilia tribu se initium esse facturum . primum quae est ista superbia et contumelia ut populi pars amputetur , ordo tribuum neglegatur , ante rusticis detur ager , qui habent , quam urbanis , quibus ista agri spes et iucunditas ostenditur ? aut , si hoc ab se dictum negat et satis facere omnibus vobis cogitat , proferat ; in iugera dena discribat , a Suburana usque ad Arniensem nomina vestra proponat . si non modo dena iugera dari vobis sed ne constipari quidem tantum numerum hominum posse in agrum Campanum intellegetis , tamenne vexari rem publicam , contemni maiestatem populi Romani , deludi vosmet ipsos diutius a tribuno plebis patiemini ?	I asked him on the first of January, to what men he was going to distribute that land, and on what principles. He answered that he should begin with the Romilian tribe. In the first place now, what is the object of such pride and arrogance as to cut off one portion of the people, and to neglect the order of the tribes? to contrive to give land to the country people who have it already, before any is given to the city people, to whom the hope of land and the pleasure they are to derive from it is held out as an inducement ? Or if he says that this is not what he said, and if he has some plan in his head to satisfy all of you, let him produce it; let him allot it in divisions of ten acres; let him put forth your names in a regular arrangement from the district of the Subura to that of the Arnus. If you perceive not only that ten acres are not given to you, but that it is actually impossible for such a body of men to be collected together in the district of Campania, will you nevertheless allow the republic to be harassed, the majesty of the Roman people to be despised, and you yourselves to be deluded any longer by the tribune of the people?
123	quod si posset ager iste ad vos pervenire , nonne eum tamen in patrimonio vestro remanere malletis ? Vnumne fundum pulcherrimum populi Romani , caput vestrae pecuniae , pacis ornamentum , subsidium belli , fundamentum vectigalium , horreum legionum , solacium annonae disperire patiemini ? an obliti estis Italico bello amissis ceteris vectigalibus quantos agri Campani fructibus exercitus alueritis ? an ignoratis cetera illa magnifica populi Romani vectigalia perlevi saepe momento fortunae inclinatione temporis pendere ? quid nos Asiae portus , quid Syriae ora , quid omnia transmarina vectigalia iuvabunt tenuissima suspicione praedonum aut hostium iniecta ?	But if that land could possibly come to you, would you not rather that it remained as part of your patrimony? Will you allow the most beautiful estate belonging to the Roman people—the main source of your riches, your chief ornament in time of peace, your chief source of supply in time of war, the foundation of your revenues, the granary from which your legions are fed, your consolation in time of scarcity—to be ruined? Have you forgotten what great armies you supported by means of the produce of Campania, in the Italian war, when you had lost all your ordinary sources of revenue? Are you ignorant that all those magnificent revenues of the Roman people are often dependent on a very slight impulse of fortune-on a critical moment? What will all the harbours of Asia, what will the plains of Syria, what will all our transmarine revenues avail us, if the very slightest alarm of pirates or enemies be once given?
124	at vero hoc agri Campani vectigal , Quirites , eius modi est ut cum domi sit et omnibus praesidiis oppidorum tegatur , tum neque bellis infestum nec fructibus varium nec caelo ac loco calamitosum esse soleat . maiores nostri non solum id quod de Campanis ceperant non imminuerunt verum etiam quod ei tenebant quibus adimi iure non poterat coemerunt . qua de causa nec duo Gracchi qui de plebis Romanae commodis plurimum cogitaverunt , nec L . Sulla qui omnia sine ulla religione quibus voluit est dilargitus , agrum Campanum attingere ausus est ; Rullus exstitit qui ex ea possessione rem publicam demoveret ex qua nec Gracchorum benignitas eam nec Sullae dominatio deiecisset .	But as our revenues derived from the territory of Campania are of such a nature that they are always at home, and that they are protected by the bulwark of all our Italian towns, so they are neither hostile to us in time of war, nor variable in their productiveness, nor unfortunate from any accidents of climate or soil. Our ancestors were so far from diminishing what they had taken from the Campanians, that they even bought additional lands to be added to it, from those from whom they could not reasonably take it without purchase. For which reason, neither the two Gracchi, who thought a great deal of what was advantageous for the Roman people, nor Lucius Sulla, who gave away everything without the slightest scruple to any one he pleased, ever ventured to touch the Campanian territory. Rullus was the first man to venture to remove the republic from that property, of which neither the liberality of the Gracchi nor the uncontrolled power of Sulla had deprived it.
125	quem agrum nunc praetereuntes vestrum esse dicitis et quem per iter qui faciunt , externi homines , vestrum esse audiunt , is , cum erit divisus , neque erit vester neque vester esse dicetur . at qui homines possidebunt ?	That land which now, as you pass by it, you say is yours, and which foreigners whose road lies through it hear is yours, when it is divided will neither be nor be said to be yours.
126	primo quidem acres , ad vim prompti , ad seditionem parati qui , simul ac xviri concrepuerint , armati in civis et expediti ad caedem esse possint ; deinde ad paucos opibus et copiis adfluentis totum agrum Campanum perferri videbitis . vobis interea , qui illas a maioribus pulcherrimas vectigalium sedis armis captas accepistis , gleba nulla de paternis atque avitis possessionibus relinquetur . at quantum intererit inter vestram et privatorum diligentiam ! quid ? Cum a maioribus nostris P . Lentulus , qui princeps senatus fuit , in ea loca missus esset ut privatos agros qui in publicum Campanum incurrebant pecunia publica coemeret , dicitur renuntiasse nulla se pecunia fundum cuiusdam emere potuisse , eumque qui nollet vendere ideo negasse se adduci posse uti venderet quod , cum pluris fundos haberet , ex illo solo fundo numquam malum nuntium audisset .	And who are the men who will possess it? In the first place they are active men, prepared for deeds of violence, willing for sedition, who, the very moment the decemvirs clap their hands, may be armed against the citizens and ready for slaughter. In the next place, you will see the whole district of Campania distributed among a few men already rich in wealth and power. Meanwhile you, who have received from your ancestors those most beautiful homes, if I may so say, of your revenues, which they won by their arms, will not have left to you one single clod of earth of all your paternal hereditary possessions. And there will be this difference between your diligence and that or private individuals, that when Publius Lentulus, while he was chief of the senate, had been sent into those parts by our ancestors, in order to purchase at the public expense those lands, being private property, which projected into the public domain in Campania, he is said to have reported that he had not been able to purchase a certain man's estate for money; and that he who had refused to sell it, had given this reason why he could not possibly be induced to sell it, that, though he had many farms, this was the only farm from which he never had had any bad news.