Control of land as a power issue between gentilicial aristocracy and citizen-soldiers in Early Rome
(2025) Herculi Musarum. Essays on Ancient History and Religion in Honour of Attilio Mastrocinque — ISBN: [978-88-5491-669-2], p. 287-294, published
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- This article re-examines the agrarian conflicts of early Republican Rome, proposing a reinterpretation of land distribution as a socio-political process primarily concerned with the emancipation of agrarian dependents from gentilicial control, rather than the redistribution of land to impoverished urban plebeians. Between Sp. Cassius’ proposed agrarian law of 486 BC and the senatorial decision concerning the ager Veientanus in 393 BC, the Roman state appears to undergo a transition from a clan-based system of land exploitation – grounded in customary occupation (occupatio) and reliant on dependent rural labourers (nexi) – to a civic model privileging private property and citizen autonomy. Drawing on comparative anthropology, archaic legal practices, and a critical reading of literary and annalistic sources, the study argues that nexi were not debt slaves in the classical sense, but rather agrarian dependents linked to clan lands by customary dues and service obligations. Their gradual emancipation, catalysed by the first secession of the plebs, corresponds with the weakening of clan authority and the parallel rise of a property-owning hoplite class. This process culminates in the viritane distribution of the Veientine territory, the first instance of large-scale land privatization outside a colonial context. The inclusion of liberi in the allotment scheme suggests a structural reconfiguration of Roman society, aiming to expand military capacity while limiting clan-based land control. In redefining the agrarian question as a power struggle between aristocratic patronage networks and emergent citizen-soldiers, this article contributes to a deeper understanding of Rome’s early republican transformation.
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Meunier, N. (2025). Control of land as a power issue between gentilicial aristocracy and citizen-soldiers in Early Rome. In Beatrice Poletti, Andrzej Gellmeister, Kresimir Vukovic (ed.), Herculi Musarum. Essays on Ancient History and Religion in Honour of Attilio Mastrocinque (p. p. 287-294). Edizioni Quasar. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/273107