The philosophers and legislators of antiquity knew well, by experience, that liberty and political equality can only exist whensupported by equality of conditions. The Politics of Aristotle enumerates a number of means employed by the Greeks tomaintain this equality. At one time they limit the maximum amount of land, which a citizen may possess; at another, theydeclare property inalienable to prevent its accumulation; at another, individual property is modified by common repasts, ofwhich all partake. There is one constant struggle against inequality. "Inequality," says Aristotle (2) with much perception, "isthe source of all revolutions." According to Böckh, the war between the rich and the poor destroyed Greece. (3) So long aslanded property preserved its collective character, equality resulted from the periodic partition, as we still see in Russia. Thiswas the golden age, of which the ancients preserved a recollection and which continued to be their ideal. Even later, whenthe several families lived on their common, indivisible and inalienable patrimony, as m Judaea or ancient Greece and Italy, atthe time when the gens and preserved its primitive character, inequality was confined within limits. But at Rome,when quiritary, that is to say, individual and exclusive property, capable of indefinite extension, was developed, none of theprecautions contrived by the Greeks were adopted to limit it. On the contrary, every newly conquered territory gave it a vastarea over which it could extend. Thus the inequality increased which was to destroy the Republic, and subsequently thewhole Roman Empire. We will state briefly the attempts made to check its progress.
The writers of greatest authority think that in Latium the soil was originally the collective property of the clan. At the timewhen the history of Rome begins, we find, it is true, lands belonging to citizens in private ownership, agri privati , as well asextensive lands belonging to the people collectively, ager populi , ager publicus . But private property was of small extent. Itonly comprised the space necessary for the house, court-yard and garden, that is, two jugera . (4) This was the heredium , theland which was transmitted hereditarily, while the rest of the territory was collective property, ager publicus .
The heredium , like the lot assigned to the Spartans, was regarded as inalienable, because it was the necessary home of thefamily, and even to the last days of the Republic it was a disgrace to sell it. (5) The heredium was not sufficient for the supportof a family, (6) and accordingly they had to obtain the rest of their means of subsistence by cultivating portions of the agerpublicus , and by turning on to the common pasturage the cattle, which was originally the principal form of wealth. Thisagrarian system is precisely similar to that of modem Russia or primitive Germany, where the hereditary domain seems tohave been much the same in extent as the Roman heredium. There is, however, this difference, that we do not find that thecollective domain was subject to periodic partition at Rome, as among the Germans or Slays. The custom, if it ever existed,has left no traces in history. The ager publicus was subject to the free right of occupancy, as in Java, or in Russia before thepartition was introduced to establish equality. Every member of the populusevery patrician, that ismight occupy suchvacant portion as he found convenient, on the one condition of conforming to the rules governing this method ofoccupation. (7) This did not confer any right of property, but a mere possessory right, in theory always revocable, which,however long it existed, was never transformed into full ownership, or dominium ex jure Quiritium . As a matter of fact,however, the patricians retained the enjoyment of the lands which they cultivated, because there was no fixed period atwhich they were to return into the common stock. The lands thus occupied by the patricians became so extensive, that theysurrendered a portion to clients, precario , that is to say on the request of the clients, a portion of the produce beingreserved. Later on, when successive conquests increased the number of slaves, the patricians cultivated by their labour theportions which they occupied of the ager publicus .
