Editing Publius Servilius Rullus (section)

==Agrarian bill==
The bill provided for the election of a ten-man commission (decemviri) which would have authority for five years. Its task was to distribute land to 5,000 colonists in lots of ten jugera in the [[ager Campanus]] and in lots of twelve [[Jugerum|jugera]] in the nearby campus Stellaris (both areas were in Campania, north of Naples). Further plots of land were intended and land was to be bought for this. To raise funds for this, the decemviri were empowered to sell public land whose sale had been recommended by senatus consulta (written advice by the senate) since 81 BC, but had not been carried out. It was also empowered to sell domains outside Italy which had become public property in 88 BC or later. The decimviri were also authorised to tax public land outside Italy, to use the [[Vectigalia]] from 63 BC <ref>It is thought that originally the Vectigalia was a tax on import and export duty; later it became a term used for all regular state revenues; William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities</ref> and the gold and silver from war booty not paid into the treasury or spent on monuments. Military commanders gave some of their booty to the state treasury and spent some of it to build temples and public facilities or to erect statues. [[Pompey]] was exempted from this. He was commanding the Roman troops in the last phase of the [[Third Mithridatic War]] (73–63 BC) against [[Pontus (region)|Pontus]] and [[Armenia]] (in present-day eastern [[Turkey]]). Because of his absence from Rome he was not eligible to be a candidate for the election of the decemviri.<ref>G. V. Sumner, Cicero, Pompeius, and Rullus, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 97 (1966), pp. 571-2</ref>

Cicero portrayed Publius Servilius Rullus as an insignificant figure and alleged that he was a front for unsavoury men he described as the real architects of the bill, as 'machinators' and as the men who had the real power and were to be feared more than Rullus. He claimed that they hoped to become decemviri. He did not name these men, but dropped hints which made them identifiable. He said that among those men who were after joining the commission there would be "some of them to whom nothing appears sufficient to possess, some to whom nothing seems sufficient to squander."<ref>Cicero, On the Agrarian Laws, 2.65</ref> The first was a reference to the popular image of [[Marcus Licinius Crassus]] and the second one referred to the popular image of [[Julius Caesar]].<ref>G. V. Sumner, Cicero, Pompeius, and Rullus, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 97 (1966), p. 573</ref> The speeches of Cicero need to be understood in terms of the frictions between two political factions, the [[populares]] (in favour of the people) and the [[optimates]] (the good men). The former favoured the plebeians (the commoners), wanted to address the problems of the urban poor and promoted reforms which would help them, particularly the redistribution of land for the landless poor to farm and the problem of indebtedness. The latter was a conservative faction which favoured the patricians (the aristocracy). It opposed the mentioned reforms. It also wanted to limit the power of the plebeian tribunes and the Plebeian Council (the assembly of the plebeians) and strengthen the power of the senate, which represented the patricians. At that time Crassus and Caesar were leading figures of the populares. Cicero was a leading figure of the optimates and as such he was opposed to the bill.

Cicero exaggerated the power which the land commission would be given by the bill. He described the commission as "... ten Kings of the treasury, of the revenues, of all provinces, of the whole Republic, of the kingdoms allied with us, the free nations confederate with us - in fact, ten Lords of the world are to be set up under the pretence and name of an agrarian law."<ref>Cicero, on the Agrarian laws, 2.15</ref> He also exaggerated the implications of the commission's power to sell domains outside Italy which had become public property. He claimed that "all nations, and people, and provinces, and kingdoms, are given up and handed over to the dominion, and judgment, and power of the decimviri … and asked … what place there is anywhere in the world which the decemviri may not be able to say has been made the property of the Roman people [public property]?" <ref>Cicero, on the Agrarian laws, 2.39</ref> He also alleged that all the lands and cities in Asia which had been ‘recovered’ by Sulla and Pompey in Asia would be declared public property and sold by the commissioners. He said [[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]] (the commander in the First Mithridatic War, 89–85 BC) had recovered land in Asia. However, Sulla had fought and recovered territories only in Greece. There was no land which was Roman public property or could be declared as such in Greece. He said that Pompey also recovered land in Asia. After winning the Third Mithridatic War Pompey annexed  [[Cilicia Trachea]], part of Pontus (both in today's Turkey), and [[Roman Syria|Syria]]. However, these were annexations, rather than recoveries of territories. Moreover, at the time of the bill the war was still on and Pompey's settlements in Asia were yet to be completed. Sumner points out that by [[mos maiorum]] the adjudication and control of the estates in the acquired territories were to rest with Pompey.<ref>G. V. Sumner, Cicero, Pompeius, and Rullus, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 97 (1966), p. 577</ref> Hence, here Cicero's statements were contentious and part of effort to purport that Crassus and Caesar wanted to use the bill to prepare for a conflict with Pompey (see below).