DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18096#0042
■
14 Roman Africa j
movement in the direction of permanent settlement in tjie
newly acquired country. It satisfied the Roman Senate to take
actual possession of the diminished territory of the Carthaginians,
extending from the river Tusca in the north (now known as the
Oued-ez-Zan, River of Oak-trees, or Oued-el-Kebir, the Great
River) to Thense on the south-east (the modern Zina, not fer
from Sfax), and to appoint a Roman governor, whose head-
quarters were to be at Utica. In order to define the boundary
of this territory, a ditch was cut round it on the land frontier,
extending from Thabraca in the north to Thenae on the coast.
Towns and villages, which had shown loyalty to the Cartha-
ginians, were razed to the ground, and the inhabitants sold as
slaves. Confiscated lands were divided into three classes. The
first became the property of the State, who let it to the
inhabitants on payment of rent, or to censors who farmed the
revenues. The second was sold to adventurous individuals,
giving rise to the formation of extensive latifundia, and laying
the foundation of a system of land-grabbing which excited the
ire of Horace, Pliny, and other writers.1 The third was at first
held by the State, but was subsequently apportioned to the
colonists of Caius Gracchus. It is stated on reliable authority 2
that no less than six thousand indigent persons, including
women and children, were shipped to Carthage from Rome and
the Italian provinces by this intrepid demagogue. So noble an
enterprise, conducted at a time when colonisation was unknown,
has given the name of Gracchus a place in history, for having
established on a proper basis the principles of emigration
beyond the sea. This benevolent undertaking was not attended
with immediate beneficial results, and gave little encouragement
to a furtherance of the scheme on a larger scale. So slow,
indeed, was the progress of colonisation that, as a recent writer
has observed,3 it was not seriously commenced till two years
after the battle of Actium, B.C. 29. 1 The idea was one which
Caesar and his successors inherited from the democratic party,
and of which the restoration of Carthage and Corinth by the
dictator were the first-fruits. The objections felt to any such
1 Horace, Carm. i. I, 10, iii. 16, 31; Pliny, Hist. Nat. xviii. 6; Frontinus,
Geom. p. 53.
2 Appian, Bella Civil, i. 24 ; Plutarch, C. Gracchus, 10, 14.
3 J. Toutain, Les Cites Romaines de la Tunisie, p. 27.
14 Roman Africa j
movement in the direction of permanent settlement in tjie
newly acquired country. It satisfied the Roman Senate to take
actual possession of the diminished territory of the Carthaginians,
extending from the river Tusca in the north (now known as the
Oued-ez-Zan, River of Oak-trees, or Oued-el-Kebir, the Great
River) to Thense on the south-east (the modern Zina, not fer
from Sfax), and to appoint a Roman governor, whose head-
quarters were to be at Utica. In order to define the boundary
of this territory, a ditch was cut round it on the land frontier,
extending from Thabraca in the north to Thenae on the coast.
Towns and villages, which had shown loyalty to the Cartha-
ginians, were razed to the ground, and the inhabitants sold as
slaves. Confiscated lands were divided into three classes. The
first became the property of the State, who let it to the
inhabitants on payment of rent, or to censors who farmed the
revenues. The second was sold to adventurous individuals,
giving rise to the formation of extensive latifundia, and laying
the foundation of a system of land-grabbing which excited the
ire of Horace, Pliny, and other writers.1 The third was at first
held by the State, but was subsequently apportioned to the
colonists of Caius Gracchus. It is stated on reliable authority 2
that no less than six thousand indigent persons, including
women and children, were shipped to Carthage from Rome and
the Italian provinces by this intrepid demagogue. So noble an
enterprise, conducted at a time when colonisation was unknown,
has given the name of Gracchus a place in history, for having
established on a proper basis the principles of emigration
beyond the sea. This benevolent undertaking was not attended
with immediate beneficial results, and gave little encouragement
to a furtherance of the scheme on a larger scale. So slow,
indeed, was the progress of colonisation that, as a recent writer
has observed,3 it was not seriously commenced till two years
after the battle of Actium, B.C. 29. 1 The idea was one which
Caesar and his successors inherited from the democratic party,
and of which the restoration of Carthage and Corinth by the
dictator were the first-fruits. The objections felt to any such
1 Horace, Carm. i. I, 10, iii. 16, 31; Pliny, Hist. Nat. xviii. 6; Frontinus,
Geom. p. 53.
2 Appian, Bella Civil, i. 24 ; Plutarch, C. Gracchus, 10, 14.
3 J. Toutain, Les Cites Romaines de la Tunisie, p. 27.