There were public and private lands in Roman territory, just as there
are in the territory of the United States, and in those days, just as
in our own, there were "squatters," as they have been called in our
history, who settled upon public lands without right, and without
paying any thing to the government for the privileges they enjoyed.
Laws regulating the use and ownership of the public lands were passed
from time to time until Julius Cæsar (B.C. 59) enacted the last. They
had for their object the relief of poverty and the stopping of the
clamors of the poor, the settling of remote portions of territory, the
rewarding of soldiers, or the extension of the popularity of some
general or other leader. The plan was not efficient in developing the
country, because those to whom the land was allotted were often not at
all adapted to pursue agriculture successfully, and because the evils
of poverty are not to be met in that way.

It was a sign of the power of the people that this proposition of
Cassius should have been successful; but it irritated the patricians
exceedingly, because they had derived large wealth from the improper
use of the public lands. The following year consuls came into power who
were more in sympathy with the patricians, and they accused Cassius of
laying plans to be made king. His popularity was undermined, and his
reputation blasted. Finally he was declared guilty of treason by his
enemies, and condemned to be scourged and beheaded, while his house was
razed to the ground. For seven years after this one of the consuls was
always a member of the powerful family of the Fabii, which had been
influential in thus overthrowing Cassius. The Fabians had opposed the
laws dividing the lands, and they now refused to carry them out. The
result was that the commons, deprived of their rights, again went to
the extreme of refusing to fight for the state; and when on one
occasion they were brought face to face with an enemy, they refused to