Ordinarily Rome left to the conquered their
liberty, but their territory was incorporated into the _domain of the
Roman people_. Of this land three equal parts were made:
1. A part of their lands was returned to the people, but on
condition that they pay a tribute in money or in grain, and Rome
reserved the right of recalling the land at will.
2. The fields and pastures were farmed out to publicans.
3. Some of the uncultivated land was resigned to the first
occupant, every Roman citizen having the right of settling there
and of cultivating it.
=Agrarian Laws.=--The Agrarian Laws which deeply agitated Rome were
concerned with this public domain. No Roman had leave to expel the
possessors, for the boundaries of these domains were gods (Termini)
and religious scruple prevented them from being disturbed. By the
Agrarian Laws the people resumed the lands of the public domain which
they distributed to citizens as property. Legally the people had the
right to do this, since all the domain belonged to them. But for some
centuries certain subjects or citizens had been permitted to enjoy
these lands; at last they regarded them as their own property; they
bequeathed them, bought and sold them.
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