Peasants in ancient Roman society

Abstract

The political power of the smallholder in democratic Athens was without parallel in the ancient world. The Roman peasant was a ‘peasant of obligation’, charged with the duty of supporting a militarist and oligarchic state with supplies and manpower, but without security of tenure over his land. The failure of successive governments under the Republic to protect peasant proprietors against the incursions of large landowners, and to resettle them on the land, caused recruitment problems, social dislocation and eventually political revolution. The concentration of estates continued in Imperial times. Small allotments were regularly awarded, mainly to military personnel, and especially on uncultivated or abandoned land, but the resettlement of peasant‐farmers never kept pace with their displacement. When the increasing demands of the government drove the rural population into the arms of the private landowners, the ruin of the peasant proprietor was complete and the collapse of the government assured.

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