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213-412: The Gracchi brothers were two brothers who lived during the beginning of the late Roman Republic : Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus . They served in the plebeian tribunates of 133 BC and 122–121 BC, respectively. They have been received as well-born and eloquent advocates for social reform who were both killed by a reactionary political system; their terms in the tribunate precipitated

426-447: A cornucopian , has written that contrary to neo-Malthusian theory, Earth's "carrying capacity" is essentially limitless. Simon argues not that there is an infinite physical amount of, say, copper, but for human purposes that amount should be treated as infinite because it is not bounded or limited in any economic sense, because: 1) known reserves are of uncertain quantity 2) New reserves may become available, either through discovery or via

639-616: A great victory for Metellus. Rome then besieged the last Carthaginian strongholds in Sicily, Lilybaeum and Drepana , but these cities were impregnable by land. Publius Claudius Pulcher , the consul of 249, recklessly tried to take the latter from the sea, but suffered a terrible defeat ; his colleague Lucius Junius Pullus likewise lost his fleet off Lilybaeum . Without the corvus , Roman warships had lost their advantage. By now, both sides were drained and could not undertake large-scale operations. The only military activity during this period

852-554: A steady-state economy . Other prominent Malthusians include the Paddock brothers, authors of Famine 1975! America's Decision: Who Will Survive? The neo-Malthusian revival has drawn criticism from writers who claim the Malthusian warnings were overstated or premature because the green revolution has brought substantial increases in food production and will be able to keep up with continued population growth. Julian Simon ,

1065-535: A " conservationist " movement in the United States concerned itself with resource depletion and natural protection in the first half of the twentieth century, Desrochers and Hoffbauer write, "It is probably fair to say ... that it was not until the publication of Osborn's and Vogt's books [1948] that a Malthusian revival took hold of a significant segment of the American population". The modern formulation of

1278-595: A coalition of Latins at the battles of Vesuvius and the Trifanum . The Latins submitted to Roman rule. A Second Samnite War began in 327 BC. The war ended with Samnite defeat at the Battle of Bovianum in 305 BC. By 304 BC, Rome had annexed most Samnite territory and begun to establish colonies there, but in 298 BC the Samnites rebelled, and defeated a Roman army, in a Third Samnite War . After this success, it built

1491-408: A coalition of several previous enemies of Rome. The war ended with Roman victory in 290 BC. At the Battle of Populonia , in 282 BC, Rome finished off the last vestiges of Etruscan power in the region. In the 4th century, plebeians gradually obtained political equality with patricians. The first plebeian consular tribunes were elected in 400. The reason behind this sudden gain is unknown, but it

1704-541: A compromise giving the allies Roman citizenship in exchange for acquiescence to Roman reassertion of claims to the ager publicus . This proposal, however, fell through when Flaccus was dispatched to war in Transalpine Gaul; relations with the allies were also not helped by the revolt and destruction of the Latin colony of Fregellae when Flaccus' proposals were withdrawn. Gaius positioned himself politically as

1917-539: A consequence of an Etruscan occupation of Rome rather than a popular revolution. According to Rome's traditional histories, Tarquin made several attempts to retake the throne, including the Tarquinian conspiracy , which involved Brutus's own sons, the war with Veii and Tarquinii , and finally the war between Rome and Clusium . The attempts to restore the monarchy did not succeed. The first Roman republican wars were wars of expansion . One by one, Rome defeated both

2130-439: A country does not depend, absolutely, upon its poverty, or its riches, upon its youth, or its age, upon its being thinly, or fully inhabited, but upon the rapidity with which it is increasing, upon the degree in which the yearly increase of food approaches to the yearly increase of an unrestricted population." However, the propensity for population increase also leads to a natural cycle of abundance and shortages: We will suppose

2343-508: A crisis. In France, terms such as " politique malthusienne " ("Malthusian politics") refer to population control strategies. The concept of restriction of the population associated with Malthus morphed, in later political-economic theory, into the notion of restriction of production. In the French sense, a "Malthusian economy" is one in which protectionism and the formation of cartels is not only tolerated but encouraged. Vladimir Lenin ,

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2556-458: A cycle of increased political violence: "the oligarchy had introduced violence into the political system with the murder of Tiberius Gracchus and over the years the use of violence became increasingly acceptable as various political disputes in Rome led to more and more bloody discord". The use of force to suppress reform also suggested that the republic itself was temperamentally unsuited for producing

2769-418: A democracy. Rather, Gaius was seeking to have the senators act more in the public interest rather than in their own private interests. To that end, with an ally in the tribunate, Manlius Acilius Glabrio , he also moved legislation reforming the provincial corruption laws. Also importantly, he passed the lex Sempronia de provinciis consularibus , which required the senate to assign consular provinces prior to

2982-418: A depopulation crisis had disappeared. His agrarian reforms likely did little more than grant the agrarian commission – of which he was still a member – the necessary jurisdiction stripped in 129 BC. He was, however, sufficiently visionary to see that further land exactions from Rome's allies would seriously damage their interests (and be politically infeasible). This led him, "one of the first to realise that

3195-491: A generation, the Republic fell into civil war again in 49 BC between Julius Caesar and Pompey . Despite his victory and appointment as dictator for life , Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Caesar's heir Octavian and lieutenant Mark Antony defeated Caesar's assassins in 42 BC, but they eventually split. Antony's defeat alongside his ally and lover Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and

3408-499: A group of prominent economists and ecologists, including Kenneth Arrow and Paul Ehrlich suggests that the central concerns regarding sustainability have shifted from population growth to the consumption/savings ratio, due to shifts in population growth rates since the 1970s. Empirical estimates show that public policy (taxes or the establishment of more complete property rights) can promote more efficient consumption and investment that are sustainable in an ecological sense; that is, given

3621-517: A long-lasting alliance with Rome. In 262 BC, the Romans moved to the southern coast and besieged Akragas . In order to raise the siege, Carthage sent reinforcements, including 60 elephants—the first time they used them—but still lost the battle . Nevertheless, Rome could not take all of Sicily because Carthage's naval superiority prevented it from effectively besieging coastal cities. Using a captured Carthaginian ship as blueprint, Rome therefore launched

3834-433: A massive construction program and built 100 quinqueremes in only two months. It also invented a new device, the corvus , a grappling engine that enabled a crew to board an enemy ship. The consul for 260 BC, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina , lost the first naval skirmish of the war against Hannibal Gisco at Lipara , but his colleague Gaius Duilius won a great victory at Mylae . He destroyed or captured 44 ships and

4047-672: A new elite, called the nobiles , or Nobilitas . By the early 3rd century BC, Rome had established itself as the major power in Italy, but had not yet come into conflict with the dominant military powers of the Mediterranean : Carthage and the Greek kingdoms. In 282, several Roman warships entered the harbour of Tarentum , triggering a violent reaction from the Tarentine democrats, who sank some. The Roman embassy sent to investigate

4260-517: A noblewoman, Lucretia . The tradition asserted that the monarchy was abolished in a revolution led by the semi-mythical Lucius Junius Brutus and the king's powers were then transferred to two separate consuls elected to office for a term of one year; each was capable of checking his colleague by veto . Most modern scholarship describes these accounts as the quasi-mythological detailing of an aristocratic coup within Tarquin's own family or

4473-422: A number of laws. First, he proposed legislation to bar anyone who the people had deposed from office from further office. This was, however, dropped at the instigation of his mother Cornelia. The proposal was likely meant to intimidate the other tribunes so they would not exercise their vetoes. He then passed legislation reaffirming provocatio rights and retroactively extending them to the sentences of exile which

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4686-467: A political watershed and new phase of the Roman republic at 139 BC. Shortly before Gabinius' law, in 140 BC, agrarian reforms were proposed by the consul Gaius Laelius Sapiens ; but he withdrew his proposals after an invasion (he was assigned as consul to lead the response) and the opposition of the senate, earning him the cognomen Sapiens . The ancient historians, especially Plutarch , viewed

4899-435: A prevalent "negative emissions" strategy for reaching Paris Climate Accord goals is another such pressure. Research indicates that technological superiority and higher land productivity had significant positive effects on population density but insignificant effects on the standard of living during the time period 1–1500 AD. In addition, scholars have reported on the lack of a significant trend of wages in various places over

5112-470: A reaction to corn disruptions in recent times that likely developed from army service, but his idea to have the Roman state smooth much of the variability of agriculture put the population less at the mercy of speculators and less dependent on magisterial largesse. The lowered incentives for magistrates giving food away for popularity at home had the added effect of reducing their proclivity to extort corn from provincials. These provisions continued in force after

5325-602: A rebuttal to thinkers like William Godwin and the Marquis de Condorcet , and Malthus's own father who believed in the perfectibility of humanity. Malthus believed humanity's ability to reproduce too rapidly doomed efforts at perfection and caused various other problems. His criticism of the working class 's tendency to reproduce rapidly, and his belief that this, rather than the exploitation of their labour by capitalists , led to their poverty, brought widespread criticism of his theory. Malthusians perceived ideas of charity to

5538-502: A reduction in the free population of Italy, falling from 328,316 in 159–58 BC down to a low of 317,933 in the census of 136–35 BC. Politicians reacted to these constraints by securing volunteers for service; the reforms of the Gracchi were related to solving this problem and also minimising the impacts of conscription. However, state difficulties in raising men for war did not mean that there were actual quantitative reductions in

5751-475: A reform programme of cancelling debts and redistributing lands. Tiberius' lex agraria and the commission survived his death. Opposition was to Tiberius' methods rather than his policies; it is likely that most senators agreed with the reform programme in principle. Archaeologists have recovered the commission's boundary stones ( cippi ), which documenting the three commissioners' activities from 133 to 130 BC. The boundary locations and descriptions imply

5964-512: A resolution" to diminish the supply of labourers "and act on it". Even if they could, the ongoing influx of Irish immigrants would render their efforts redundant. Associating Malthusianism with laissez-faire , he instead advocated proactive legislation. His later essay "Indian Meal" (1849) argued that maize production would remedy the failure of the potato crop as well as any prospective food shortages. Karl Marx (who had occasion to cite Ensor). referred to Malthusianism as "nothing more than

6177-401: A school-boyish, superficial plagiary of Defoe , Sir James Steuart , Townsend , Franklin , Wallace". Friedrich Engels argued that Malthus failed to recognise a crucial difference between humans and other species. In capitalist societies, as Engels put it, scientific and technological "progress is as unlimited and at least as rapid as that of population". Marx argued, even more broadly, that

6390-713: A series of domestic crises which are viewed as unsettling the Roman Republic and contributing to its collapse. Tiberius Gracchus passed legislation which established a commission to survey Roman public land , reassert state claims to it, and redistribute it to poor rural farmers. These reforms were a reaction to a perceived decline in Italy's rural population. A decade later, Gaius Gracchus' reforms, among other things, attempted to buttress Tiberius' land commission and start Roman colonisation outside of Italy. They also were far more broad, touching on many topics such as assignment of provincial commands, composition of juries for

6603-652: A similar revolt in Sardinia to seize the island from Carthage, in violation of the peace treaty. This led to permanent bitterness in Carthage. After its victory, the Republic shifted its attention to its northern border as the Insubres and Boii were threatening Italy. Meanwhile, Carthage compensated the loss of Sicily and Sardinia with the conquest of Southern Hispania (up to Salamanca ), and its rich silver mines. This rapid expansion worried Rome, which concluded

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6816-534: A sort of beneficium to the allies, who had been allowed to continue to work the land which had been confiscated from them". Through Roman conquests, the Italians who were allied to Rome were de facto confirmed in their lands and also gained substantially from the influx of booty and wealth from Roman conquest. The traditional narratives in the ancient sources which described the emergence of commercial latifundia (enormous slave-staffed plantations owned by

7029-704: A stalemate, with the Treaty of Phoenice signed in 205. In Hispania, Scipio continued his successful campaign at the battles of Carmona in 207, and Ilipa (now Seville ) in 206, which ended the Punic threat on the peninsula. Elected consul in 205, he convinced the Senate to invade Africa with the support of the Numidian king Masinissa , who had defected to Rome. Scipio landed in Africa in 204. He took Utica and then won

7242-647: A steadily growing population remained a necessary factor in the continuing "progress of society", generally. Modern neo-Malthusians are generally more concerned than Malthus with environmental degradation and catastrophic famine than with poverty. Malthusianism has attracted criticism from diverse schools of thought, including Georgists , Marxists and socialists , libertarians and free market advocates, feminists , Catholics , and human rights advocates, characterising it as excessively pessimistic, insufficiently researched, misanthropic or inhuman. Many critics believe Malthusianism has been discredited since

7455-422: A subsidised price of six and two-thirds sesterces per modius . Further legislation also regulated the magistrates and the senate. Even though the ancient sources generally cast these reforms as part of "an elaborate plot against the authority of the senate... he showed no sign of wanting to replace the senate in its normal functions". Nor were his reforms meant to undermine the senate indirectly or establish

7668-539: A third term in 121 but was defeated. During violent protests over repeal of an ally's colonisation bill, the Senate moved the first senatus consultum ultimum against him, resulting in his death, with many others, on the Aventine. His legislation (like that of his brother) survived; the Roman aristocracy disliked the Gracchan agitation but accepted their policies. Malthusianism These concepts derive from

7881-422: A third tribunate, but was unsuccessful. It is said that he had sufficient popular support to have been elected, but was not returned because the ten tribunician offices had already been filled. Early in the year 121 BC, attempts were made to repeal portions of Gaius' legislation. The main point of repeal, however, was not agrarian legislation or his subsidised grain bill, but the comparatively minor question of

8094-680: A treaty with Hasdrubal in 226, stating that Carthage could not cross the Ebro river . But the city of Saguntum , south of the Ebro, appealed to Rome in 220 to act as arbitrator during a period of internal strife . Hannibal took the city in 219, triggering the Second Punic War. Initially, the Republic's plan was to carry war outside Italy, sending the consuls P. Cornelius Scipio to Hispania and Ti. Sempronius Longus to Africa, while their naval superiority prevented Carthage from attacking from

8307-579: Is a recurrent theme in many social science venues. John Maynard Keynes , in Economic Consequences of the Peace , opens his polemic with a Malthusian portrayal of the political economy of Europe as unstable due to Malthusian population pressure on food supplies. Many models of resource depletion and scarcity are Malthusian in character: the rate of energy consumption will outstrip the ability to find and produce new energy sources, and so lead to

8520-406: Is ample evidence to show that the temporary labour of free men was very important to large estates" especially around harvest-time. In the years before 133 BC, a pause in construction of large public monuments also reduced demand for urban labour, triggering a prolonged period of poor labour market conditions. This general economic downturn was likely compounded by years of high food prices due to

8733-507: Is now spreading from the developed countries to less developed countries , the United Nations Population Fund estimates that human population may peak in the late 21st century rather than continue to grow until it has exhausted available resources. Recent empirical research corroborates this assumption for most of the less developed countries , with the exception of most of Sub-Saharan Africa . A 2004 study by

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8946-764: Is of substantial import: it set a dangerous precedent that violence was an acceptable tool against political enemies. The Gracchi exerted a substantial influence on later politics. They were viewed alternately as popular martyrs or dangerous demagogues through the late republic. They were also portrayed as social revolutionaries and proto-socialists during the French Revolution and afterwards; in that vein, they motivated social revolutionaries such as François-Noël "Gracchus" Babeuf and opposition to enclosure in Britain. Scholars today view these socialist comparisons as unapt. It used to be standard view that through

9159-411: Is preserved on a bronze tablet once owned by Cardinal Pietro Bembo . While, in the long run, the equestrian jury would prove a political issue for the next half century, these reforms were not meant to set the senate and equites into conflict. Nor were they some kind of programme at true popular oversight, as moving the jury from the senators to the equites "merely reallocated influence from one section of

9372-552: Is still too high, and will eventually lead to a serious crisis. The 2007–2008 world food price crisis inspired further Malthusian arguments regarding the prospects for global food supply. From approximately 2004 to 2011, concerns about "peak oil" and other forms of resource depletion became widespread in the United States, and motivated a large if short-lived subculture of neo-Malthusian "peakists". A United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization study conducted in 2009 said that food production would have to increase by 70% over

9585-406: Is what caused the mass killings of Tutsi and even some Hutu Rwandans. The genocide, in this instance, provides a potential example of a Malthusian trap. Some researchers contend that a British breakout occurred due to technological improvements and structural change away from agricultural production, while coal, capital, and trade played a minor role. Economic historian Gregory Clark , building on

9798-433: The lex Cassia , extending the secret ballot to capital cases after Scipio Aemilianus convinced an opposing tribune to heed the people and withdraw his veto. The introduction of secret ballot was probably one of the necessary conditions for the later Gracchan programme since it insulated the popular assemblies from elite control. For this reason, the historian Harriet Flower, in the 2010 book Roman republics , demarcates

10011-410: The lex Ovinia transferred this power to the censors, who could only remove senators for misconduct, thus appointing them for life. This law strongly increased the power of the Senate, which was by now protected from the influence of the consuls and became the central organ of government. In 312 BC, following this law, the patrician censor Appius Claudius Caecus appointed many more senators to fill

10224-469: The Battle of the Great Plains , which prompted Carthage to open peace negotiations. The talks failed because Scipio wanted to impose harsher terms on Carthage to prevent it from rising again as a threat. Hannibal was therefore sent to face Scipio at Zama . Scipio could now use the heavy Numidian cavalry of Massinissa—which had hitherto been so successful against Rome—to rout the Punic wings, then flank

10437-503: The Malthusian League . Neo-Malthusians differ from Malthus's theories mainly in their support for the use of birth control . Malthus, a devout Christian, believed that "self-control" (i.e., abstinence) was preferable to artificial birth control. He also worried that the effect of contraceptive use would be too powerful in curbing growth, conflicting with the common 18th century perspective (to which Malthus himself adhered) that

10650-634: The Roman Empire following the War of Actium . During this period, Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world . Roman society at the time was primarily a cultural mix of Latin and Etruscan societies, as well as of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is especially visible in the Ancient Roman religion and its pantheon . Its political organization developed at around

10863-559: The Rwandan Genocide was brought about in part due to excessive population pressures. He argues that Rwanda "illustrates a case where Malthus's worst-case scenario does seem to have been right." Due to population pressures in Rwanda, Diamond explains that the population density combined with lagging technological advancements caused its food production to not be able to keep up with its population. Diamond claims that this environment

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11076-551: The Second Punic War , the older lands had been occupied for centuries. Attempts, through to the start of the Social War, to press Roman claims on those lands – which "the allies assumed that they would be able to keep... as long as they did not rebel" – may have greatly undermined allied support for Roman hegemony. Gaius' reforms were broad and covered large portions of the republic's administration. Their main purpose

11289-655: The Seleucid Empire made increasingly aggressive and successful attempts to conquer the entire Greek world. Now not only Rome's allies against Philip, but even Philip himself, sought a Roman alliance against the Seleucids. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Hannibal was now a chief military advisor to the Seleucid emperor, and the two were believed to be planning outright conquest not just of Greece, but also of Rome. The Seleucids were much stronger than

11502-834: The Seleucid Empire , the Lusitanian Viriathus , the Numidian Jugurtha , the Pontic king Mithridates VI , Vercingetorix of the Arverni tribe of Gaul , and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra . At home, during the Conflict of the Orders , the patricians , the closed oligarchic elite, came into conflict with the more numerous plebs ; this was resolved peacefully, with the plebs achieving political equality by

11715-545: The Seleucid Empire . In 202, internal problems led to a weakening of Egypt's position, disrupting the power balance among the successor states. Macedonia and the Seleucid Empire agreed to an alliance to conquer and divide Egypt. Fearing this increasingly unstable situation, several small Greek kingdoms sent delegations to Rome to seek an alliance. Rome gave Philip an ultimatum to cease his campaigns against Rome's new Greek allies. Doubting Rome's strength, Philip ignored

11928-634: The Third Punic War . Tiberius, along with Gaius Fannius, was among the first to scale Carthage's walls, serving through to the next year. A decade later, in 137 BC, he was quaestor under the consul Gaius Hostilius Mancinus in Hispania Citerior . The campaign was part of the Numantine War and was unsuccessful; Mancinus and his army lost several skirmishes outside the city before a confused night-time retreat that led them to

12141-416: The ongoing slave revolt in Sicily, an island from which substantial amounts of grain were shipped to Rome. Through the conquests of Italy in the fourth and third centuries BC, the Roman state had acquired legal rights to large amounts of land ceded by the subjugated Italian allies. Their former lands, the ager publicus , were not heavily exploited by the Roman state. Rather, the land "had been regarded as

12354-602: The plebs elected tribunes , who were personally sacrosanct, immune to arbitrary arrest by any magistrate, and had veto power over legislation. By 390 BC, several Gallic tribes were invading Italy from the north. The Romans met the Gauls in pitched battle at the Battle of Allia River around 390–387 BC. The battle was fought at the confluence of the Tiber and Allia rivers, 11 Roman miles (10 mi or 16 km) north of Rome. The Romans were routed and subsequently Rome

12567-574: The 4th century BC. The late Republic, from 133 BC onward, saw substantial domestic strife , often anachronistically seen as a conflict between optimates and populares , referring to conservative and reformist politicians, respectively. The Social War between Rome and its Italian allies over citizenship and Roman hegemony in Italy greatly expanded the scope of civil violence. Mass slavery also contributed to three Servile Wars . Tensions at home coupled with ambitions abroad led to further civil wars . The first involved Marius and Sulla . After

12780-418: The 500 or 1,000 jugera limit. Tiberius was supported in his endeavour by likeminded aristocrats who also viewed the perceived problem of rural depopulation seriously – among those in support of the proposal were the consul of 133 BC, Publius Mucius Scaevola , and Scaevola's brother, Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus , – he may have been put up to pass the proposals by those allied statesmen. He

12993-460: The Boii ambushed the army of the consul-elect for 215, L. Postumius Albinus , who died with all his army of 25,000 men in the Battle of Silva Litana . These disasters triggered a wave of defection among Roman allies, with the rebellions of the Samnites, Oscans, Lucanians, and Greek cities of Southern Italy. In Macedonia, Philip V also made an alliance with Hannibal in order to take Illyria and

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13206-564: The Capitoline and bludgeoned Tiberius and a number of his supporters to death. It was largely constitutional issues which impelled the violent reaction, not the agrarian laws. The reaction was motivated in part by Greek constitutional thought which created a narrative of popular mobilisation leading inexorably to popular tyranny. Such beliefs were compounded by the recent example of tyranny in Sparta, led by Nabis , which had come to power with

13419-457: The Commons" , argued that "a finite world can support only a finite population" and that "freedom to breed will bring ruin to all." The Club of Rome published a book entitled The Limits to Growth in 1972. The report and the organisation soon became central to the neo-Malthusian revival. Leading ecological economist Herman Daly has acknowledged the influence of Malthus on his concept of

13632-402: The Gracchan reforms and brothers as a single unit. Modern scholars have started to view them separately and in their own political contexts. Views on Gracchus' motives differ. Favourable ancient sources attribute his reforms to spirited advocacy for the poor. Less favourable ancient sources, such as Cicero , instead attribute his actions to an attempt to win back dignitas and standing after

13845-456: The Italian population, however, would trigger later proposals for land redistribution; especially notable is Caesar 's lex agraria during his consulship in 59 BC, which gave away the ager Campanus to some 20,000 settlers, albeit on less generous terms. After this, it became increasingly clear that there was simply insufficient land in Italy to accommodate demand. Reassessments of

14058-418: The Italians upgraded to Latin rights . Doing so further extended to Italians, via Latin rights, the right to vote if present in Rome during elections. This proposal died: the specifics are not entirely clear, it may have been vetoed or otherwise simply withdrawn; recent scholarship now trends towards a veto from Livius Drusus. Gaius, after taking some leave to set up a colony near Carthage, attempted to stand for

14271-528: The Macedonians had ever been, because they controlled much of the former Persian Empire and had almost entirely reassembled Alexander the Great's former empire. Fearing the worst, the Romans began a major mobilization, all but pulling out of recently conquered Spain and Gaul. This fear was shared by Rome's Greek allies, who now followed Rome again for the first time since that war. A major Roman-Greek force

14484-423: The Malthusian predictions of The Population Bomb and The Limits to Growth failed to materialise due to radical changes in fertility that peaked at a growth of 2 percent per year in 1963 globally and has since rapidly declined. While short-term trends, even on the scale of decades or centuries, cannot prove or disprove the existence of mechanisms promoting a Malthusian catastrophe over longer periods, due to

14697-524: The Malthusian theory was developed by Quamrul Ashraf and Oded Galor . Their theoretical structure suggests that as long as higher income has a positive effect on reproductive success , and land is a limiting factor in resource production, then technological progress has only a temporary effect on income per capita (per person). While in the short run technological progress increases income per capita, resource abundance created by technological progress would enable population growth, and would eventually bring

14910-508: The Population of Nations containing a Refutation of Mr. Malthus's Essay on Population (1818), George Ensor had developed a similar broadside against Malthusian political economy, arguing that poverty was sustained not by reckless propensity to propagate, but rather by the state's indulgence of the heedless concentration of private wealth. Following the same line of argument, William Hazlitt (1819) wrote, "Mr Malthus wishes to confound

15123-612: The Principles of Population , taking a more optimistic tone, although there is some scholarly debate on the extent of his revisions. According to Dan Ritschel of the Center for History Education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, The great Malthusian dread was that "indiscriminate charity" would lead to exponential growth in the population in poverty, increased charges to the public purse to support this growing army of

15336-455: The Punic army—and confronted Hannibal, who was encamped at Cannae , in Apulia . Despite his numerical disadvantage, Hannibal used his heavier cavalry to rout the Roman wings and envelop their infantry, which he annihilated. In terms of casualties, the Battle of Cannae was the worst defeat in Roman history: only 14,500 soldiers escaped, and Paullus was killed as well as 80 senators. Soon after,

15549-712: The Rhone, sent his elder brother Gnaeus with the main part of his army in Hispania according to the initial plan, and went back to Italy with the rest to resist Hannibal in Italy, but he was defeated and wounded near the Ticino river . Hannibal then marched south and won three outstanding victories. The first one was on the banks of the Trebia in December 218, where he defeated the other consul Ti. Sempronius Longus. More than half

15762-425: The Roman army was lost. Hannibal then ravaged the country around Arretium to lure the new consul C. Flaminius into a trap at Lake Trasimene . This clever ambush resulted in the death of the consul and the complete destruction of his army of 30,000 men. In 216, the new consuls L. Aemilius Paullus and C. Terentius Varro mustered the biggest army possible, with eight legions—some 80,000 soldiers, twice as many as

15975-407: The Romans concluded a peace in the north and moved south with reinforcements, placing Pyrrhus in danger of being flanked by two consular armies; Pyrrhus withdrew to Tarentum. In 279 BC, Pyrrhus met the consuls Publius Decius Mus and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio at the Battle of Asculum , which remained undecided for two days. Finally, Pyrrhus personally charged into the melee and won the battle but at

16188-415: The Romans' inability to conceive of plausible alternatives to the traditional republican system in a "crisis without alternative". The second instead stresses the continuity of the republic: until its disruption by Caesar's civil war and the following two decades of civil war created conditions for autocratic rule and made return to republican politics impossible: and, per Erich S. Gruen , "civil war caused

16401-583: The Senate's grant of extraordinary powers to Octavian as Augustus in 27 BC—which effectively made him the first Roman emperor —marked the end of the Republic. Rome had been ruled by monarchs since its foundation . These monarchs were elected, for life, by the men of the Roman Senate . The last Roman monarch was called Tarquin the Proud , who in traditional histories was expelled from Rome in 509 BC because his son, Sextus Tarquinius , raped

16614-598: The Spartan general marched on Regulus, crushing the Roman infantry on the Bagradas plain ; only 2,000 soldiers escaped, and Regulus was captured. The consuls for 255 nonetheless won a naval victory at Cape Hermaeum, where they captured 114 warships. This success was spoilt by a storm that annihilated the victorious navy: 184 ships of 264 sank, 25,000 soldiers and 75,000 rowers drowned. The corvus considerably hindered ships' navigation and made them vulnerable during tempest. It

16827-478: The UK and France after 1750. Fogel's findings are consistent with estimates of available food supply. Evidence supporting Malthusianism today can be seen in the poorer countries of the world with booming populations. In East Africa specifically, experts say that this area of the world has not yet escaped the Malthusian effects of population growth. Jared Diamond in his book Collapse (2005), for example, argues that

17040-691: The affair was insulted and war was promptly declared. Facing a hopeless situation, the Tarentines (together with the Lucanians and Samnites) appealed to Pyrrhus , king of Epirus , for military aid. A cousin of Alexander the Great , he was eager to build an empire for himself in the western Mediterranean and saw Tarentum's plea as a perfect opportunity. Pyrrhus and his army of 25,500 men (with 20 war elephants) landed in Italy in 280 BC. The Romans were defeated at Heraclea , as their cavalry were afraid of Pyrrhus's elephants. Pyrrhus then marched on Rome, but

17253-474: The aftermath of the Social War. In the winter of 138–137 BC, a first slave uprising, known as the First Servile War , broke out in Sicily. After initial successes, the slaves led by Eunus and Cleon were defeated by Marcus Perperna and Publius Rupilius in 132 BC. In this context, Tiberius Gracchus was elected plebeian tribune in 133 BC. He attempted to enact a law to limit

17466-463: The agrarian reforms to degrading Rome's relations with its Italian allies and the Social War , as the reforms were a reassertion of Roman claims on public land that had been for decades largely occupied without title by Rome's Italian allies. Gracchan claims of Italian rural depopulation also are contradicted by archaeological evidence. The impact of the violent reaction to the two brothers, however,

17679-423: The agreement when Philip's emissaries were captured by a Roman fleet. The First Macedonian War saw the Romans involved directly in only limited land operations, but they achieved their objective of occupying Philip and preventing him from aiding Hannibal. The past century had seen the Greek world dominated by the three primary successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great 's empire: Ptolemaic Egypt , Macedonia and

17892-493: The amount of land anyone could own and establish a commission to distribute public lands to poor rural plebs. The aristocrats, who stood to lose an enormous amount of money, bitterly opposed this proposal. Tiberius submitted this law to the Plebeian Council , but it was vetoed by fellow tribune Marcus Octavius . Tiberius induced the plebs to depose Octavius from his office on the grounds that Octavius acted contrary to

18105-582: The amount of land in Italy was insufficient to provide for all inhabitants of the peninsula", to pursue extra-Italian colonisation. This change in scope proved long-lasting and by the time of Caesar, it would be standard policy to establish citizen colonies outside the Italian peninsula, which "would in time prove the only adequate method of finding enough land" for Italy's growing populations. The Gracchan leges agrariae continued in operation through their deaths until 111 BC, which again overhauled Roman policy with public lands. Much of this law survives to

18318-628: The area around Epidamnus , occupied by Rome. His attack on Apollonia started the First Macedonian War . In 215, Hiero II of Syracuse died of old age, and his young grandson Hieronymus broke the long alliance with Rome to side with Carthage. At this desperate point, the aggressive strategy against Hannibal the Scipiones advocated was abandoned in favour of a slow reconquest of the lost territories, since Hannibal could not be everywhere to defend them. Although he remained invincible on

18531-455: The backbone of Rome's economy, as smallholding farmers, managers, artisans, traders, and tenants. In wartime, they could be summoned for military service. Most had little direct political influence. During the early Republic, the plebs (or plebeians) emerged as a self-organised, culturally distinct group of commoners, with its own internal hierarchy, laws, customs, and interests. Plebeians had no access to high religious and civil office. For

18744-408: The battlefield, defeating all the Roman armies on his way, he could not prevent Claudius Marcellus from taking Syracuse in 212 after a long siege , nor the fall of his bases of Capua and Tarentum in 211 and 209 . In Hispania, Publius and Gnaeus Scipio won the battles of Cissa in 218, soon after Hannibal's departure, and Dertosa against his brother Hasdrubal in 215, which enabled them to conquer

18957-504: The causes of the Social War have also trended toward viewing the lex agraria as a major contributing factor. Land holdings in Roman-dominated Italy gave the Roman state a latent title to large swaths of land which had never been formally surveyed. While the Gracchan land commission quickly parcelled and redistributed lands in southern Italy that had been confiscated from the allies that had defected to Hannibal during

19170-424: The censuses of 125–24 BC and 115–14 BC, indicate large increases which are incompatible with any actual decline in Italian rural populations. Archaeological evidence of small farms attested all over Italy in the second century and the general need for free labour during harvest time has led scholars to conclude that "there are no good grounds for inferring a general decline of the small independent farmer in

19383-411: The commission's goals was in reasserting Roman claims to land which by that time had long been occupied by the Italian allies, the allies started to complain of unfairness and inaccurate rushed surveying. In 129, those complaints were heard by the senate, who also took the opportunity to limit the agrarian commission's powers. Scipio Aemilianus proposed and received from the senate a decree which assigned

19596-693: The consul Appius Claudius Caudex , turned to one of the popular assemblies to get a favourable vote by promising plunder to the voters. After the assembly ratified an alliance with the Mamertines, Caudex was dispatched to cross the strait and lend aid. Messina fell under Roman control quickly. Syracuse and Carthage, at war for centuries, responded with an alliance to counter the invasion and blockaded Messina, but Caudex defeated Hiero and Carthage separately. His successor, Manius Valerius Maximus , landed with an army of 40,000 men and conquered eastern Sicily, which prompted Hiero to shift his allegiance and forge

19809-427: The consul in the senate to use force to stop his re-election. The consul refused to act extralegally, but one of the other senators, Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio , found this reply unacceptable and led an impromptu military levy of senators, which included one of Tiberius' colleagues in the plebeian tribunate; with Nasica, who was pontifex maximus , reenacting an archaic sacrificial ritual, they then stormed

20022-493: The consular commission in 132 BC had passed against Tiberius' supporters. Publius Popillius Laenas , the consul who had led the commission and was thereby opened to prosecution for violating those rights, immediately left the city for exile in Campania. Gaius also moved legislation which would benefit the rich equestrians , especially those who served as Rome's public contractors (the publicani ): Gaius also recognised

20235-402: The cost of an important part of his troops ; he allegedly said, "if we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined." He escaped the Italian deadlock by answering a call for help from Syracuse, where tyrant Thoenon was desperately fighting an invasion from Carthage . Pyrrhus could not let them take the whole island, as it would have compromised his ambitions in

20448-619: The creation of promagistracies to rule its conquered provinces , and differences in the composition of the senate. Unlike the Pax Romana of the Roman Empire, throughout the republican era Rome was in a state of near-perpetual war. Its first enemies were its Latin and Etruscan neighbours, as well as the Gauls , who sacked Rome in 387 BC. After the Gallic sack, Rome conquered

20661-617: The credibility of earlier claims concerning the spread of slave-staffed estates and the survival or otherwise of subsistence-oriented smallholders". Through the second century, there is documented some difficulty in raising men and some resistance against levies. This starts in the Third Macedonian War and continues through Roman campaigns in Spain from 151 BC. Roman censuses – which were conducted largely to tally men for conscription – starting in 159 BC also began to note

20874-570: The current (relatively low) population growth rate, the Malthusian catastrophe can be avoided by either a shift in consumer preferences or public policy that induces a similar shift. According to Malthus, population doubled every 25 years. Population sat at less than 17 million people in the U.S. in the 1850s and a century later, according to the United States Census Bureau, population had risen to 150 million. Malthus overpopulation would lead to war, famine, and diseases and in

21087-553: The daily wage hardly varied. In Britain between 1200 and 1800, only relatively minor fluctuations from the mean (less than a factor of two) in real wages occurred. Following depopulation by the Black Death and other epidemics, real income in Britain peaked around 1450–1500 and began declining until the British Agricultural Revolution . Historian Walter Scheidel posits that waves of plague following

21300-515: The death of Gaius, suggesting an emerging consensus at Rome that there was a "right of the people to enjoy the rewards of the empire [and that] frumentationes [were useful] to divert the interest and support of the urban plebs from the prospect of agrarian reform". After a period of abrogation by Sulla, the dole in the future would expand, however, both in cost and generosity, as later generations of politicians acted with or without senatorial support to do so. Gaius' lex de provinciis consularibus

21513-639: The demographic growth and environmental damage created by civilisation. He also opposed coercive measures postulated by neo-malthusian movements of his time arguing that their cost will fall disproportionately on the low-income population who are struggling already. Ester Boserup suggested that expanding population leads to agricultural intensification and development of more productive and less labor-intensive methods of farming. Thus, human population levels determines agricultural methods, rather than agricultural methods determining population. Environmentalist founder of Ecomodernism , Stewart Brand , summarised how

21726-579: The departure of the Epirote king. Between 288 and 283 BC, Messina in Sicily was taken by the Mamertines , a band of mercenaries formerly employed by Agathocles . They plundered the surroundings until Hiero II , the new tyrant of Syracuse , defeated them (in either 269 or 265 BC). In effect under a Carthaginian protectorate, the remaining Mamertines appealed to Rome to regain their independence. Senators were divided on whether to help. A supporter of war,

21939-410: The dependent, and, eventually, the catastrophe of national bankruptcy . Though Malthusianism has since come to be identified with the issue of general over-population, the original Malthusian concern was more specifically with the fear of over-population by the dependent poor. One proponent of Malthusianism was the novelist Harriet Martineau whose circle of acquaintances included Charles Darwin , and

22152-795: The descendants of the rich becoming more populous in British society and spreading middle-class values such as hard work and literacy. After World War II , mechanized agriculture produced a dramatic increase in productivity of agriculture and the Green Revolution greatly increased crop yields, expanding the world's food supply while lowering food prices. In response, the growth rate of the world's population accelerated rapidly, resulting in predictions by Paul R. Ehrlich , Simon Hopkins, and many others of an imminent Malthusian catastrophe. However, populations of most developed countries grew slowly enough to be outpaced by gains in productivity. By

22365-403: The development of new extraction techniques 3) recycling 4) more efficient utilization of existing reserves (e.g., "It takes much less copper now to pass a given message than a hundred years ago." [The Ultimate Resource 2, 1996, footnote, p. 62]) 5) development of economic equivalents, e.g., optic fibre in the case of copper for telecommunications. Responding to Simon, Al Bartlett reiterates

22578-432: The dictator Camillus , who made a compromise with the tribunes: he agreed to their bills, and they in return consented to the creation of the offices of praetor and curule aediles, both reserved to patricians. Lateranus became the first plebeian consul in 366 BC; Stolo followed in 361 BC. Soon after, plebeians were able to hold both the dictatorship and the censorship. The four-time consul Gaius Marcius Rutilus became

22791-561: The distribution over just a few years of some 3,268 square kilometres of land to Roman citizens, concentrated in southern Italy and benefitting some 15,000 households. The cippi largely name Tiberius' younger brother Gaius, Appius Claudius Pulcher , and Publius Licinius Crassus . Tiberius appointed himself to the commission, but after his death, Crassus was elected in his place. After the natural deaths of Appius Claudius and Crassus by 130 BC, Marcus Fulvius Flaccus and Gaius Papirius Carbo were elected in their place. Because one of

23004-638: The dominant force in politics and society. They initially formed a closed group of about 50 large families, called gentes , who monopolised Rome's magistracies, state priesthoods, and senior military posts. The most prominent of these families were the Cornelii , Aemilii , Claudii , Fabii , and Valerii . The leading families' power, privilege and influence derived from their wealth, in particular from their landholdings, their position as patrons , and their numerous clients. The vast majority of Roman citizens were commoners of various social degrees. They formed

23217-402: The early 21st century, many technologically developed countries had passed through the demographic transition , a complex social development encompassing a drop in total fertility rates in response to various fertility factors , including lower infant mortality , increased urbanization , and a wider availability of effective birth control . On the assumption that the demographic transition

23430-626: The eastern coast of Hispania. But in 211, Hasdrubal and Mago Barca successfully turned the Celtiberian tribes that supported the Scipiones, and attacked them simultaneously at the Battle of the Upper Baetis , in which the Scipiones died. Publius's son, the future Scipio Africanus , was then elected with a special proconsulship to lead the Hispanic campaign, winning a series of battles with ingenious tactics. In 209, he took Carthago Nova ,

23643-451: The economic difficulties of the plebs for their own gain: Stolo, Lateranus, and Genucius bound their bills attacking patricians' political supremacy with debt-relief measures. As a result of the end of the patrician monopoly on senior magistracies, many small patrician gentes faded into history during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC due to the lack of available positions. About a dozen remaining patrician gentes and 20 plebeian ones thus formed

23856-499: The elections of the consuls and insulated this decision from tribunician veto. Some ancient sources claim that Gaius wanted to change voting procedures in the timocratic comitia centuriata to make it more democratic. However, this claim is dubious and largely rejected. Gaius made an extremely controversial proposal to improve the state of the Latins and the other Italian allies: the Latins would receive full Roman citizenship with

24069-528: The elite to another". Ernst Badian , writing in the Oxford Classical Dictionary , gave the assessment: A proud aristocrat, [Gaius] wanted to leave the senate in charge of directing policy and the magistrates in charge of its execution, subject to constitutional checks and removed from financial temptation, with the people sharing in the profits of empire without excessive exploitation of the subjects. The ultimate result of his legislation

24282-482: The elite) on the public land itself is also largely unattested to by the archaeological evidence in this period. Moreover, evidence indicates that the ager publicus was largely located outside of the traditional farmlands close to Rome and instead located in non-Roman Italy closer to the Italian allies. Public land redistribution was therefore necessarily at the expense of the allies, who would be evicted from ancestral lands still occupied. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus

24495-403: The embarrassing treaty he was forced to negotiate after defeat in Spain. It cannot be doubted that, even if he was a true believer in the need for reform, Tiberius hoped to further his fame and political standing among the elite. The main goal of Tiberius' agrarian proposal was three-fold: The purpose of the reform was to stimulate population growth and expand the number of people who would meet

24708-457: The end of the war, the consuls for 256 BC decided to carry the operations to Africa, on Carthage's homeland. The consul Marcus Atilius Regulus landed on the Cap Bon peninsula with about 18,000 soldiers. He captured the city of Aspis , repulsed Carthage's counterattack at Adys , and took Tunis . The Carthaginians hired Spartan mercenaries, led by Xanthippus , to command their troops. In 255,

24921-525: The fall of the republic, not vice versa". A core cause of the Republic's eventual demise was the loss of elite's cohesion from c.  133 BC : the ancient sources called this moral decay from wealth and the hubris of Rome's domination of the Mediterranean. Modern sources have proposed multiple reasons why the elite lost cohesion, including wealth inequality and a growing willingness by aristocrats to transgress political norms, especially in

25134-450: The families placed atop them. However, there are some indications that the lands distributed were used for pasture rather than intensive agriculture, even if they were suitable for farming. Gaius' role in land reform is more obscure; the sources are largely unclear on it except in mentioning offhandedly that he brought legislation on the matter. By the time of his tribunate, the census results of 125–24 BC had been published and belief in

25347-417: The field of eugenics . Henry Fairfield Osborn Jr. advocated "humane birth selection through humane birth control" in order to avoid a Malthusian catastrophe by eliminating the "unfit". Malthusianism became a less common intellectual tradition as the 19th century advanced, mostly as a result of technological increases, the opening of new territory to agriculture, and increasing international trade. Although

25560-421: The first plebeian dictator in 356 BC and censor in 351 BC. In 342 BC, the tribune of the plebs Lucius Genucius passed his leges Genuciae , which abolished interest on loans, in a renewed effort to tackle indebtedness; required the election of at least one plebeian consul each year; and prohibited magistrates from holding the same magistracy for the next ten years or two magistracies in the same year. In 339 BC,

25773-471: The first time a Roman army had ever entered Asia . The decisive engagement was fought at the Battle of Magnesia , resulting in complete Roman victory. The Seleucids sued for peace, and Rome forced them to give up their recent Greek conquests. Rome again withdrew from Greece, assuming (or hoping) that the lack of a major Greek power would ensure a stable peace. In fact, it did the opposite. In 179, Philip died. His talented and ambitious son, Perseus , took

25986-412: The food of the world. Malthus faced opposition from economists both during his life and since. A vocal critic several decades later was Friedrich Engels . Malthus was not the first to outline the problems he perceived. The original essay was part of an ongoing intellectual discussion at the end of the 18th century regarding the origins of poverty . Principle of Population was specifically written as

26199-406: The four patricians in the college. The Conflict of the Orders ended with the last secession of the plebs around 287. The dictator Quintus Hortensius passed the lex Hortensia , which reenacted the law of 339 BC, making plebiscites binding on all citizens, while also removing the requirement for prior Senate approval. These events were a political victory of the wealthy plebeian elite, who exploited

26412-422: The future, society won't be able to feed every person and eventually die. Malthus theory was incorrect, however, because by the early 1900s and mid 1900s, the rise of conventional foods brought a decline to food production and efficiency increased exponentially. More supply was being produced with less work, less resources, and less time. Processed foods had much to do with it, many wives wanting to spend less time in

26625-411: The global population of the past century exemplifies Malthus's predicted population patterns; it also appears to describe socio-demographic dynamics of complex pre-industrial societies . These findings are the basis for neo-Malthusian modern mathematical models of long-term historical dynamics . There was a general "neo-Malthusian" revival in the mid-to-late 1940s, continuing through to the 2010s after

26838-589: The growing unrest he had caused led to his trial for seeking kingly power; he was sentenced to death and thrown from the Tarpeian Rock . Between 376 BC and 367 BC, the tribunes of the plebs Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus continued the plebeian agitation and pushed for an ambitious legislation, known as the Leges Liciniae Sextiae . The most important bill opened the consulship to plebeians. Other tribunes controlled by

27051-548: The growth of both a human population in toto and the " relative surplus population " within it, occurred in direct proportion to accumulation . Henry George in Progress and Poverty (1879) criticised Malthus's view that population growth was a cause of poverty, arguing that poverty was caused by the concentration of ownership of land and natural resources. George noted that humans are distinct from other species, because unlike most species humans can use their minds to leverage

27264-540: The ideas of Malthus were a significant influence on the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution . Darwin was impressed by the idea that population growth would eventually lead to more organisms than could possibly survive in any given environment, leading him to theorize that organisms with a relative advantage in the struggle for survival and reproduction would be able to pass their characteristics on to further generations. Proponents of Malthusianism were in turn influenced by Darwin's ideas , both schools coming to influence

27477-445: The increased economic prosperity brought by Roman imperialism". In general, more recent scholarship has stressed that the ancient sources have exaggerated the extent to which the Roman yeoman farmers were in fact in decline. Tiberius' reform law was not revolutionary, but his tactics in pursuit of it were, especially when they mobilised the assemblies which gave some genuine expression of the popular will. Those tactics threatened "to break

27690-535: The infantry, as Hannibal had done at Cannae. Defeated for the first time, Hannibal convinced the Carthaginian Senate to pay the war indemnity, which was even harsher than that of 241: 10,000 talents in 50 instalments. Carthage also had to give up all its elephants, all its fleet but ten triremes , and all its possessions outside its core territory in Africa (what is now Tunisia ), and it could not declare war without Roman authorisation. In effect, Carthage

27903-543: The inheritor of Tiberius' popularity and political programme. After a quaestorship, he was elected fourth in the tribunician elections of 124 BC; after his election, he cast his brother's death as "a failure by the plebeians to maintain their tradition of defending their tribunes". Unlike his brother, Gaius' proposals largely did not relate to land. Over two years, he proposed broad legislation touching all parts of Roman government, from tax collection to senatorial provincial assignments. During his first tribunate, he proposed

28116-467: The initial outbreak of the Black Death throughout Europe had a leveling effect that changed the ratio of land to labor, reducing the value of the former while boosting that of the latter, which lowered economic inequality by making employers and landowners less well off while improving the economic prospects and living standards of workers. He says that "the observed improvement in living standards of

28329-484: The insights of Galor and Moav, has argued, in his book A Farewell to Alms , that a British breakout may have been caused by differences in reproduction rates among the rich and the poor (the rich were more likely to marry, tended to have more children, and, in a society where disease was rampant and childhood mortality at times approached 50%, upper-class children were more likely to survive to adulthood than poor children.) This in turn led to sustained "downward mobility":

28542-476: The kitchen and instead work. This was the beginning of technological advancements adhering to food demand even in the middle of a war. Economists disregarded Malthus population theory because Malthus didn't factor in important roles society would have on economic growth. These factors concerned the society's need to improve their quality of life and their want for economic prosperity. Cultural shifts also had much to do with food production increase, and this put end to

28755-738: The laboring population was rooted in the suffering and premature death of tens of millions over the course of several generations." This leveling effect was reversed by a "demographic recovery that resulted in renewed population pressure ." Robert Fogel published a study of lifespans and nutrition from about a century before Malthus to the 19th century that examined European birth and death records, military and other records of height and weight that found significant stunted height and low body weight indicative of chronic hunger and malnutrition. He also found short lifespans that he attributed to chronic malnourishment which left people susceptible to disease. Lifespans, height and weight began to steadily increase in

28968-468: The land commission remained in operation until 111 BC. By that point, almost all land available to distribute had already been distributed. In the whole, "the aristocracy's reaction resembled that of a general dealing with a mutiny, who accedes to most of the demands but executes the ringleaders to preserve discipline". Tiberius' reforms were focused on the rural peasantry. They were not, however, "so much oppressed as eager (quite justifiably) to share in

29181-530: The leader of the Bolshevik Party and the main architect of the Soviet Union was a critic of Neo-Malthusian theory (but not of birth control and abortion in general). "Neo-Malthusianism" is a concern that overpopulation as well as overconsumption may increase resource depletion and/or environmental degradation will lead to ecological collapse or other hazards . The rapid increase in

29394-443: The league's surrender. Rome decided to divide Macedonia into two new, directly administered Roman provinces, Achaea and Macedonia . For Carthage, the Third Punic War was a simple punitive mission after the neighbouring Numidians allied to Rome robbed and attacked Carthaginian merchants. Treaties had forbidden any war with Roman allies; viewing defence against banditry as "war action", Rome decided to annihilate Carthage. Carthage

29607-530: The main Punic base in Hispania. The next year, he defeated Hasdrubal at the Battle of Baecula . After his defeat, Carthage ordered Hasdrubal to reinforce his brother in Italy. Since he could not use ships, he followed the same route as his brother through the Alps, but the consuls M. Livius Salinator and C. Claudius Nero were awaiting him and defeated him in the Battle of the Metaurus , where Hasdrubal died. It

29820-477: The manifest will of the people, a position that was unprecedented and constitutionally dubious. His law was enacted and took effect, but, when Tiberius ostentatiously stood for reelection to the tribunate, he was murdered by his enemies. Tiberius's brother Gaius was elected tribune ten years later in 123 and reelected for 122. He induced the plebs to reinforce rights of appeal to the people against capital extrajudicial punishments and institute reforms to improve

30033-471: The means of subsistence in any country just equal to the easy support of its inhabitants. The constant effort towards population...increases the number of people before the means of subsistence are increased. The food therefore which before supported seven millions, must now be divided among seven millions and a half or eight millions. The poor consequently must live much worse, and many of them be reduced to severe distress. The number of labourers also being above

30246-472: The most important cities in the Roman Empire. Views on the structural causes of the Republic's collapse differ. One enduring thesis is that Rome's expansion destabilized its social organization between conflicting interests; the Senate's policymaking, blinded by its own short-term self-interest, alienated large portions of society, who then joined powerful generals who sought to overthrow the system. Two other theses have challenged this view. The first blames

30459-422: The necessary limits of the produce of the earth with the arbitrary and artificial distribution of that produce by the institutions of society". Thomas Carlyle dismissed Malthusianism as pessimistic sophistry . In Chartism (1839), he denied the possibility that "twenty-four millions" of English "working people[s]", "scattered over a hundred and eighteen thousand square miles of space", could collectively "take

30672-564: The new limit of 300, including descendants of freedmen, which was deemed scandalous. Caecus also launched a vast construction program, building the first aqueduct , the Aqua Appia , and the first Roman road, the Via Appia . In 300 BC, the two tribunes of the plebs Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius passed the lex Ogulnia , which created four plebeian pontiffs, equalling the number of patrician pontiffs, and five plebeian augurs, outnumbering

30885-540: The next 40 years, and food production in the developing world would need to double to feed a projected population increase from 7.8 billion to 9.1 billion in 2050. The effects of global warming (floods, droughts, and other extreme weather events) are expected to negatively affect food production, with different impacts in different regions. The FAO also said the use of agricultural resources for biofuels may also put downward pressure on food availability. The more recent emergence of bio-energy with carbon capture (BECCS) as

31098-415: The old kingdom. The Romans swiftly defeated the Macedonians at the second battle of Pydna . The Achaean League , seeing the direction of Roman policy trending towards direct administration, met at Corinth and declared war "nominally against Sparta but in reality, against Rome". It was swiftly defeated: in 146, the same year as the destruction of Carthage , Corinth was besieged and destroyed , forcing

31311-448: The oligarchic stranglehold on Rome's political system, thus leading to his demise". This was exacerbated by Tiberius' use of social justice rhetoric, which further set him aside from his aristocratic brethren. While substantial acreage was distributed as a whole, more than 3,268 square kilometres in the first few years of operation, there is some debate to the extent to which the Gracchan land allotments were actually economically viable for

31524-410: The ones that was successful was the establishment of a secret ballot in 139 BC by the tribune Aulus Gabinius . The circumstances of the reform are no longer known: it was probably presented as an expansion of public liberty and a check against corruption (no longer would those who bribed be able to ensure that recipients voted as instructed). Legislation extending the secret ballot was passed in 137,

31737-467: The patricians vetoed the bills, but Stolo and Lateranus retaliated by vetoing the elections for five years while being continuously reelected by the plebs, resulting in a stalemate. In 367 BC, they carried a bill creating the Decemviri sacris faciundis , a college of ten priests, of whom five had to be plebeians, thereby breaking patricians' monopoly on priesthoods. The resolution of the crisis came from

31950-485: The people's welfare. While ancient sources tend to "conceive Gracchus' legislation as an elaborate plot against the authority of the Senate... he showed no sign of wanting to replace the Senate in its normal functions". Amid wide-ranging and popular reforms to create grain subsidies, change jury pools, establish and require the Senate to assign provinces before elections, Gaius proposed a law that would grant citizenship rights to Rome's Italian allies. He stood for election to

32163-497: The per capita income back to its original long-run level. The testable prediction of the theory is that during the Malthusian epoch technologically advanced economies were characterized by higher population density, but their level of income per capita was not different from the level in societies that are technologically backward. To manage population growth with respect to food supply, Malthus proposed methods which he described as preventive or positive checks: Malthusian theory

32376-456: The permanent courts, and letting of state tax farming contracts. Both brothers were killed during or shortly after the conclusion of their respective tribunician terms. More recent scholarship on the Roman economy has viewed the Gracchi agrarian reforms as less impactful than claimed in the ancient sources. It is also clear that the vast majority of their reformist legislation was left intact rather than repealed. Some modern scholars also connect

32589-533: The persistent Sabines and the local cities. Rome defeated its rival Latin cities in the Battle of Lake Regillus in 496 BC, the Battle of Ariccia in 495 BC, the Battle of Mount Algidus in 458 BC, and the Battle of Corbio in 446 BC. But it suffered a significant defeat at the Battle of the Cremera in 477 BC, wherein it fought against the most important Etruscan city, Veii ; this defeat

32802-493: The plebeian consul and dictator Quintus Publilius Philo passed three laws extending the plebeians' powers. His first law followed the lex Genucia by reserving one censorship to plebeians, the second made plebiscites binding on all citizens (including patricians), and the third required the Senate to give its prior approval to plebiscites before they became binding on all citizens. During the early Republic, consuls chose senators from among their supporters. Shortly before 312 BC,

33015-434: The plenty of labourers, and the necessity of an increased industry amongst them, encourage cultivators to employ more labour upon their land; to turn up fresh soil, and to manure and improve more completely what is already in tillage; till ultimately the means of subsistence become in the same proportion to the population as at the period from which we set out. The situation of the labourer being then again tolerably comfortable,

33228-544: The political and economic thought of the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus , as laid out in his 1798 writings, An Essay on the Principle of Population . Malthus suggested that while technological advances could increase a society's supply of resources, such as food, and thereby improve the standard of living , the abundance of resources would enable population growth, which would eventually bring

33441-592: The poor, typified by Tory paternalism , were futile, as these would only result in increased numbers of the poor; these theories played into Whig economic ideas exemplified by the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 . The Act was described by opponents as "a Malthusian bill designed to force the poor to emigrate, to work for lower wages, to live on a coarser sort of food", which initiated the construction of workhouses despite riots and arson. Malthus revised his theories in later editions of An Essay on

33654-445: The poorest, one of the few effective political tools was their withdrawal of labour and services, in a " secessio plebis "; the first such secession occurred in 494 BC, in protest at the abusive treatment of plebeian debtors by the wealthy during a famine. The patrician Senate was compelled to give them direct access to the written civil and religious laws and to the electoral and political process. To represent their interests,

33867-414: The population theory. One of the earliest critics was David Ricardo . Malthus immediately and correctly recognised it to be an attack on his theory of wages. Ricardo and Malthus debated this in a lengthy personal correspondence. In Ireland , where applying his thesis, Malthus proposed that "to give full effect to the natural resources of the country a great part of the population should be swept from

34080-450: The populations of rural Italy. While the census reported a reduction in the republic's citizen population through the 130s BC, these population reductions were not at the time connected to unwillingness to serve in Rome's unpopular campaigns in Spain. Because the easiest way to dodge the draft was to avoid registration by the censors, no actual decline in population is necessary to explain censorial reports thereto. The later results of

34293-441: The potential of population growth as an exponential (or as expressed by Malthus, "geometrical") curve to outstrip both natural resources and human ingenuity. Bartlett writes and lectures particularly on energy supplies, and describes the "inability to understand the exponential function" as the "greatest shortcoming of the human race". Prominent neo-Malthusians such as Paul Ehrlich maintain that ultimately, population growth on Earth

34506-520: The power to determine contested ownership to the consuls. By 129 BC, the commission had over some three years already distributed all the available uncontested land. Archaeological finds of Gracchan cippi largely stop after 129 BC. Discontent among the Italian allies had grown between Tiberius' land commission and the later 120s BC. One of the land commissioners elected in the early 120s BC, Marcus Fulvius Flaccus had served as consul in 125 BC and – according to Appian – proposed

34719-411: The precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and tens of thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with

34932-425: The present. Building upon those laws, it abolished the rents that Tiberius' law passed, making the lands fully private and alienable. By 111 BC, most of the lands that could be distributed already had been; what was left over was "mostly pasture or land which had been assigned to specific people" through long-term leases or set aside for the purpose of providing money for road maintenance. The continuing increase of

35145-552: The property qualifications for service in the Roman army. The inclusion of the limit of 500 jugera was for the purpose of painting the law as a return to mos maiorum and the Sextian-Licinian rogations so to avoid any charges of novelty. Whether the Sextian-Licinian rogations in fact had such a clause is unclear; what mattered to Tiberius and his allies was that they believed it did. Land distributed

35358-423: The proportion of the work in the market, the price of labour must tend toward a decrease; while the price of provisions would at the same time tend to rise. The labourer therefore must work harder to earn the same as he did before. During this season of distress, the discouragements to marriage, and the difficulty of rearing a family are so great, that population is at a stand. In the mean time the cheapness of labour,

35571-460: The proposed colony at Carthage. After an attendant was killed in the streets by Gaius' supporters, Gaius and his ally Flaccus were summoned to defend themselves before the senate; they refused and barricaded themselves with armed followers on the Aventine hill . Their refusal was tantamount to rebellion. A senatus consultum ultimum was then moved, instructing the consul Lucius Opimius to ensure

35784-426: The publication of Principle of Population , often citing advances in agricultural techniques and modern reductions in human fertility. Some modern proponents believe that the basic concept of population growth eventually outstripping resources is still fundamentally valid, and that positive checks are still likely to occur in humanity's future if no action is taken to intentionally curb population growth. In spite of

35997-648: The publication of two influential books in 1948 ( Fairfield Osborn 's Our Plundered Planet and William Vogt 's Road to Survival ). During that time the population of the world rose dramatically. Many in environmental movements began to sound the alarm regarding the potential dangers of population growth. Paul R. Ehrlich has been one of the most prominent neo-Malthusians since the publication of The Population Bomb in 1968. In 1968, ecologist Garrett Hardin published an influential essay in Science that drew heavily from Malthusian theory. His essay, "The Tragedy of

36210-572: The reproductive forces of nature to their advantage. He wrote, "Both the hawk and the man eat chickens; but the more hawks, the fewer chickens, while the more men, the more chickens." D. E. C. Eversley observed that Malthus appeared unaware of the extent of industrialisation, and either ignored or discredited the possibility that it could improve living conditions of the poorer classes. Barry Commoner believed in The Closing Circle (1971) that technological progress will eventually reduce

36423-559: The request, and Rome sent an army of Romans and Greek allies, beginning the Second Macedonian War . In 197, the Romans decisively defeated Philip at the Battle of Cynoscephalae , and Philip was forced to give up his recent Greek conquests. The Romans declared the "Peace of the Greeks", believing that Philip's defeat now meant that Greece would be stable, and pulled out of Greece entirely. With Egypt and Macedonia weakened,

36636-460: The restraints to population are in some degree loosened; and the same retrograde and progressive movements with respect to happiness are repeated. Famine seems to be the last, the most dreadful resource of nature. The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are

36849-421: The ruling classes of both Rome and the Italian allies; second, the law unfairly dispossessed people who had put money into the improvement of the land; third, that dispossession also would unsettle dowries pledged against the land and inheritances made under the assumption tenure was secure. When the vote arrived and Octavius interposed his tribunician veto, the matter was brought before the senate, but no settlement

37062-483: The same time as direct democracy in Ancient Greece , with collective and annual magistracies, overseen by a senate . There were annual elections, but the republican system was an elective oligarchy , not a democracy ; a small number of powerful families largely monopolised the magistracies. Roman institutions underwent considerable changes throughout the Republic to adapt to the difficulties it faced, such as

37275-583: The sea. This plan was thwarted by Hannibal's bold move to Italy. In May 218, he crossed the Ebro with a large army of about 100,000 soldiers and 37 elephants. He passed in Gaul , crossed the Rhone , then the Alps , possibly through the Col de Clapier . This exploit cost him almost half of his troops, but he could now rely on the Boii and Insubres, still at war with Rome. Publius Scipio, who had failed to block Hannibal on

37488-525: The second century BC, the number of free farmers in rural Italy suffered a precipitous decline. This traditional view, transmitted from the ancient sources, "has been much overstated"; the narrative connecting military service to the decline of the yeomanry, moreover, "has to be rejected". The main driver for this reevaluation is archaeological evidence of Italian settlement patterns from the 1980s onwards: "impressive methodological advances that have been achieved in survey archaeology have ... done much to undermine

37701-404: The second century". The Gracchan narrative of rural population decline through 133 BC – "long since... shown to be false" – likely emerged not from a general and actual decline in rural free-holding, but rather, generalisation from a local decline in coastal Etruria where commercial slave plantations were dominant. And while Gracchan observations of rural poverty were likely true; this, however,

37914-411: The site of a camp from a former consular campaign in 153 BC where they were surrounded. Tiberius negotiated a treaty of surrender, aided in part by his father's positive reputation built during a praetorship in 179–78 BC; Tiberius' treaty, however, was later humiliatingly rejected by the senate after his return to Rome. Various reforms had been attempted in the years prior to 133 BC. One of

38127-464: The soil", there were early refutations. In Observations on the population and resources of Ireland (1821) , Whitley Stokes , invoking the advantages mankind derives from "improved industry, improved conveyance, improvements in morals, government and religion", denied that there was a "law of nature" that procreation must outrun the means of subsistence. Ireland's problem was not her "numbers" but her indifferent government. In An Inquiry Concerning

38340-521: The state came to no harm and urging him to suppress Gaius and Flaccus on the Aventine. With a force of militia and Cretan archers, Opimius stormed the Aventine, killing Flaccus and his sons; Gaius was either killed or forced to commit suicide. Opimius then presided over drumhead courts investigating and executing many of Gaius and Flaccus' supporters. In the end, most of Gaius' reforms were preserved; archaeology has discovered evidence of Gracchan land colonial activities in Africa c.  119 BC and

38553-519: The supply of resources for each person back to its original level. Some economists contend that since the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century, mankind has broken out of the trap. Others argue that the continuation of extreme poverty indicates that the Malthusian trap continues to operate. Others further argue that due to lack of food availability coupled with excessive pollution, developing countries show more evidence of

38766-400: The throne and showed a renewed interest in conquering Greece. With its Greek allies facing a major new threat, Rome declared war on Macedonia again, starting the Third Macedonian War . Perseus initially had some success against the Romans, but Rome responded by sending a stronger army which decisively defeated the Macedonians at the Battle of Pydna in 168. The Macedonians capitulated, ending

38979-447: The trap as compared to developed countries. A similar, more modern concept, is that of human overpopulation . Neo-Malthusianism is the advocacy of human population planning to ensure resources and environmental integrities for current and future human populations as well as for other species. In Britain the term "Malthusian" can also refer more specifically to arguments made in favour of family planning , hence organizations such as

39192-463: The types of economic reforms wanted or needed, as in the Gracchi's framing, by the people. Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( Latin : Res publica Romana [ˈreːs ˈpuːblɪka roːˈmaːna] ) was the era of classical Roman civilization beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of

39405-474: The variety of criticisms against it, the Malthusian argument remains a major discourse based on which national and international environmental regulations are promoted. In 1798, Thomas Malthus proposed his hypothesis in An Essay on the Principle of Population . He argued that although human populations tend to increase, the happiness of a nation requires a like increase in food production. "The happiness of

39618-644: The verge of losing the war. Pyrrhus again met the Romans at the Battle of Beneventum . This time, the consul Manius Dentatus was victorious and even captured eight elephants. Pyrrhus then withdrew from Italy, but left a garrison in Tarentum, to wage a new campaign in Greece against Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedonia . His death in battle at Argos in 272 BC forced Tarentum to surrender to Rome. Rome and Carthage were initially on friendly terms, lastly in an alliance against Pyrrhus, but tensions rapidly rose after

39831-443: The war. Convinced now that the Greeks (and therefore the rest of the region) would not have peace if left alone, Rome decided to establish its first permanent foothold in the Greek world, and divided Macedonia into four client republics. Yet Macedonian agitation continued. The Fourth Macedonian War , 150 to 148 BC, was fought against a Macedonian pretender to the throne who was again destabilizing Greece by trying to reestablish

40044-464: The weakness of Tiberius' coalition, which relied only on the rural plebs, and therefore sought to expand it. To do so, he courted the urban plebs with legislation establishing Roman colonies both in Italy and abroad at Carthage. He also carried legislation to stop deduction of soldier pay for equipment and to establish a minimum age for conscription at 17. In this package, Gaius also introduced the grain subsidy which allowed all citizens to purchase grain at

40257-523: The western Mediterranean, and so declared war. The Carthaginians lifted the siege of Syracuse before his arrival, but he could not entirely oust them from the island as he failed to take their fortress of Lilybaeum . His harsh rule soon led to widespread antipathy among the Sicilians; some cities even defected to Carthage. In 275 BC, Pyrrhus left the island before he had to face a full-scale rebellion. He returned to Italy, where his Samnite allies were on

40470-425: The whole Italian Peninsula in a century and thus became a major power in the Mediterranean. Its greatest strategic rival was Carthage , against which it waged three wars . Rome defeated Carthage at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, becoming the dominant power of the ancient Mediterranean world. It then embarked on a long series of difficult conquests, defeating Philip V and Perseus of Macedon , Antiochus III of

40683-413: The world for very long stretches of time. In Babylonia during the period 1800 to 1600 BC, for example, the daily wage for a common laborer was enough to buy about 15 pounds of wheat. In Classical Athens in about 328 BC, the corresponding wage could buy about 24 pounds of wheat. In England in 1800 AD the wage was about 13 pounds of wheat. In spite of the technological developments across these societies,

40896-503: Was soundly defeated by Catulus. Exhausted and unable to bring supplies to Sicily, Carthage sued for peace. Carthage had to pay 1,000 talents immediately and 2,200 over ten years and evacuate Sicily. The fine was so high that Carthage could not pay Hamilcar's mercenaries, who had been shipped back to Africa. They revolted during the Mercenary War , which Carthage suppressed with enormous difficulty. Meanwhile, Rome took advantage of

41109-514: Was a similar policy to reduce senatorial corruption and was "far from being revolutionary": his purpose with the law "was to prevent sitting consuls from using their position to influence provincial assignments improperly (and perhaps to Rome’s detriment)" by requiring provinces to be assigned before the consuls took office. To further insulate such decisions from political meddling, he even made senatorial decisions on consular provinces immune from tribunician veto. The impact of Tiberius' murder started

41322-431: Was abandoned after another similar catastrophe in 253 BC. These disasters prevented any significant campaign between 254 and 252 BC. Hostilities in Sicily resumed in 252 BC, with Rome's taking of Thermae. The next year, Carthage besieged Lucius Caecilius Metellus , who held Panormos (now Palermo). The consul had dug trenches to counter the elephants, which once hurt by missiles turned back on their own army, resulting in

41535-521: Was almost defenceless, and submitted when besieged. But the Romans demanded complete surrender and removal of the city into the desert hinterland, far from any coastal or harbour region; the Carthaginians refused. The city was besieged and completely destroyed . Rome acquired all of Carthage's North African and Iberian territories. The Romans rebuilt Carthage 100 years later as a Roman colony, by order of Julius Caesar. It flourished, becoming one of

41748-415: Was also successful in rallying large numbers of rural plebs to Rome to vote in favour of the plan. The proposals were likely not appealing to the urban plebs, who would not have had the agricultural skills necessary to capitalise on the programme. He was opposed in the assembly by one of the other tribunes, Marcus Octavius . There were largely three grounds for opposition: first, the dispossession would harm

41961-502: Was born c. 163 BC. His younger brother Gaius was born c. 154 BC. They were the sons of the Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus who had been consul 177 and 163 BC as well as censor in 169 BC. He had triumphed twice in 178 and 175 BC. Their mother was Cornelia , the daughter of the renowned general Scipio Africanus , the hero of the Second Punic War . Their sister Sempronia also

42174-479: Was condemned to be a minor power, while Rome recovered from a desperate situation to dominate the western Mediterranean. Rome's preoccupation with its war with Carthage provided an opportunity for Philip V of Macedonia , in the north of the Greek peninsula , to attempt to extend his power westward. He sent ambassadors to Hannibal's camp in Italy, to negotiate an alliance as common enemies of Rome. But Rome discovered

42387-513: Was illegal, due to a law which forbade holding the same magistracy within ten years. The sources allege that Tiberius also announced plans for a significantly more broad set of reforms, but these may be retrojections of his brother Gaius' later-consummated proposals. On the day of the election, Tiberius seized the Capitoline hill , possibly to intimidate the voters; Tiberius' opponents accused him of having kingly aspirations and attempted to induce

42600-446: Was later avenged at the Battle of Veii in 396 BC, wherein Rome destroyed the city. By the end of this period, Rome had effectively completed the conquest of its immediate Etruscan and Latin neighbours and secured its position against the immediate threat posed by the nearby Apennine hill tribes. Beginning with their revolt against Tarquin, and continuing through the early years of the Republic, Rome's patrician aristocrats were

42813-451: Was likely done so with a prohibition on alienation and a vectigal (rent). Alienation was prohibited to prevent recipients from simply reselling the land. The vectigal served to allow the land to revert to the state if a citizen walked away from the allotment; reversion would then allow the state to settle someone else on the land. The veteres possessores (old possessors) also would receive security of tenure over their lands, up to

43026-439: Was limited as patrician tribunes retained preeminence over their plebeian colleagues. In 385 BC, the former consul and saviour of the besieged capital, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus , is said to have sided with the plebeians, ruined by the sack and largely indebted to patricians. According to Livy, Capitolinus sold his estate to repay the debt of many of them, and even went over to the plebs, the first patrician to do so. Nevertheless,

43239-530: Was mobilized under the command of the great hero of the Second Punic War, Scipio Africanus , and set out for Greece, beginning the Roman–Seleucid War . After initial fighting that revealed serious Seleucid weaknesses, the Seleucids tried to turn the Roman strength against them at the Battle of Thermopylae , but were forced to evacuate Greece. The Romans pursued the Seleucids by crossing the Hellespont ,

43452-492: Was not a result of slave-dominated plantations crowding out poor farmers, but overpopulation under Malthusian conditions. In rural areas closer to Rome, expanding population and partible inheritance led to the splitting of previously modest farms into plots too small to support families. Many of these small farms were not economically viable. Coupled with the high price of land near Rome, many of these farmers sold their lands to rich men and engaged instead in wage labour. "There

43665-431: Was reached. Unwilling to back down, Tiberius – unprecedentedly – had the assembly depose Octavius from office and vote the legislation through. Violent opposition to Tiberius' agrarian policy did not come to a head until he moved legislation to use the inheritance of Attalus III of Pergamon for the land commission. The ancient sources differ on the question of what Attalus' bequest was to be dedicated: Plutarch claims it

43878-528: Was sacked by the Senones . There is no destruction layer at Rome around this time, indicating that if a sack occurred, it was largely superficial. Second Samnite War Third Samnite War From 343 to 341 BC, Rome won two battles against its Samnite neighbours, but was unable to consolidate its gains, due to the outbreak of war with former Latin allies. In the Latin War (340–338 BC), Rome defeated

44091-438: Was the first Roman to receive a naval triumph, which also included captive Carthaginians for the first time. Although Carthage was victorious on land at Thermae in Sicily, the corvus gave a strong advantage to Rome on the waters. The consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio (Asina's brother) captured Corsica in 259 BC; his successors won the naval battles of Sulci in 258, Tyndaris in 257 BC, and Cape Ecnomus in 256. To hasten

44304-409: Was the landing in Sicily of Hamilcar Barca in 247 BC, who harassed the Romans with a mercenary army from a citadel he built on Mt. Eryx . Unable to take the Punic fortresses in Sicily, Rome tried to decide the war at sea and built a new navy, thanks to a forced borrowing from the rich. In 242 BC, 200 quinqueremes under consul Gaius Lutatius Catulus blockaded Drepana. The rescue fleet from Carthage

44517-480: Was the turning point of the war. The campaign of attrition had worked well: Hannibal's troops were now depleted; he only had one elephant left ( Surus ) and retreated to Bruttium , on the defensive. In Greece, Rome contained Philip V without devoting too many forces by allying with the Aetolian League , Sparta , and Pergamon , which also prevented Philip from aiding Hannibal. The war with Macedon resulted in

44730-488: Was the wife of Scipio Aemilianus , another important general and politician. Later Roman historians painted Cornelia as an "archetypical Roman matron", "heavily idealised and inevitably quite distance from the historical Cornelia", which may be a product of her son Gaius' own political presentation. Tiberius' military career started in 147 BC, serving as a legate or military tribune under his brother-in-law, Scipio Aemilianus during his campaign to take Carthage during

44943-409: Was to advance the quality of Roman government, reducing extortion and corruption among the senatorial governors while acting within the bounds of what his contemporaries would have considered due process. One of the elements best attested to is Gaius' lex repetundarum , which reformed the quaestio perpetua on provincial corruption with an equestrian jury to check senatorial governors. The law

45156-501: Was to be used to help land recipients purchase farm equipment; Livy, via epitome, claims that it was to be used to purchase more land for distribution after there turned out to be little land available. This second proposal infringed on senatorial prerogatives over foreign policy and public finances. Senators also feared that these financial handouts would give Tiberius substantial personal political power. Tiberius then announced his intention to stand for re-election; according to Livy, this

45369-401: Was to set up the publicani as a new exploiting class, not restrained by a tradition of service or by accountability at law. But this did not become clear for a generation, and he cannot be blamed for not foreseeing it. His lex frumentaria , which created a subsidised grain supply at around what he considered to be a "normal" price, set up an influential model for welfare in Rome. It was

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