CLST 201 Lecture Notes - Jugerum, Populares, The Consul
31 Jan 2013
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Document Summary
Roman expansion overseas between 264 133 bc was accompanied by social changes in italy. Decline of the small farms owned and worked by peasants. Rise of large estates, latifundia, owned by wealthy aristocrats, operated by slave labour. Poor ex-farmers flocked to rome in search of alternate forms of employment. Military service abroad was an option lots of overseas wars. Many small farmers went to war, returned to find that farms burnt, cops destroyed, from 2nd punic war (hannibal waging war up and down peninsula for 14 years). Those who were fortunate enough to survive could not resume former agricultural livelihood could no longer compete with efficiently run latifundia (owners could afford to undercut prices, drive out small farmers by creating monopoly). Many small farmers who survived, returned, had little alternative but to sell out to wealthy landowners. Rome in search of work, became the urban proliterate.
