758. De Lege Agraria I by Cicero. A Tribune by the name of Rullus put forth a bill in early 63 BC for land reform. Cicero opposed it. The speech was delivered in the Senate, January 1, 63 BC. He takes the following line:
Does it make sense to hand over authority to a land commission which has designed the bill in secret? This bill will allow public property to be auctioned by the board of ten, called the Decemvirs. Rullus wants land to be purchased for distribution to citizens.
Rullus plans to itemize every bit of property to be put up for sale. This was land won by the valor of our ancestors. It is to be sold for the sake of a bribe. (That bribe is the offer of land to citizens at the expense of their freedom.)
Land in Greece, Macedonia, Africa, Asia is to be sold and land which once Mithridates possessed. Some of this land will be the land recently acquired by Pompey.
Is any of this aimed at Pompey? Yes. No place has been established for the auction. Why? Because the Decemvirs get to decide. This is odd when one considers that the Censors who let out state contracts for the collection of taxes, must do so in full public view.
What a burden the huge commission will be on the local population who must provide food, shelter and other needs.
The Decemvirs will deiced what is private property and what is public and will sell accordingly. Their power will be unlimited. It will be possible for the commission to receive money for not selling. In other words, justice will be for sale, since they will have the power to label land as public or private.
Quo in iudicio perspici non potest utrum severitas acerbior an benignitas quaestuosior sit futura.
In this decision it is not possible to be clearly seen whether severity would be more bitter or kindness would be more profitable.
Rullus can sniff out a coin no matter how well hidden. This law would give control of money from conquests to this commission. This law would put in charge of the commission oversight for most of the state’s income. Rullus and his supporters contend that anger against this law will be reduced when people see that the money will be used to purchase land. The law is vague as to where colonies will be established. It is possible that people beholding to Rullus, et al., will be placed in a colony in Italy. (This , of course, could be used to influence elections.) Thus Cicero imagines that Capua could be set in opposition to Rome. Cicero suggests that since nothing is in place which will determine who the colonists are that perhaps criminals will be the colonists.
This law is designed to shift the base of power away from the Senate and Rome. (For after all, it will be the commission in distant lands which will determine what is sold and what is not.)
Rullus, you and your friends, thought that the public could be hoodwinked into accepting the plan, until the details were exposed by me. This bill has not produced comfort but fear that the powers of the commission will be used to effect something way beyond simply establishing colonies.
The Senate’s authority is at stake as a guiding force for the nation.
