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Pinnock's Improved Edition of Dr. Goldsmith's Abridgement of the History of Rome
Pinnock's Improved Edition of Dr Goldsmith's Abridgement of the History of Rome Author:Oliver Goldsmith Subtitle: To Which Is Prefixed an Introduction to the Study of Roman History, and a Great Variety of Valuable Information Added Throughout the Work, on the Manners, Institutions and Antiquities of the Romans; With Numerous Biographical and Historical Notes General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1835 Original Publisher... more »: Key and Biddle Subjects: Rome History / Ancient / Rome History / Europe / Italy Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER V. THE ROMAN TENURE OF LAND. -- COLONIAL GOVERNMENT. [As this chapter is principally designed for advanced students, it has not been thought necessary to add questions for examination.] The contests respecting agrarian laws occupy so large a space in Roman history, and are so liable to be misunderstood, that it is necessary to explain their origin at some length. According to an almost universal custom, the right of conquest was supposed to involve the property of the land. Thus the Normans who assisted William I. were supposed to have obtained a right to the possessions of the Saxons ; and in a later age, the Irish princes, whose estates were not confirmed by a direct grant from the English crown, were exposed to forfeiture when legally summoned to prove their titles. The extensive acquisitions made by the Romans, were either formed into extensive national domains, or divided into small lots among the poorer classes.. The usufruct of the domains was monopolized by the patricians who rented them from the state ; the smaller lots were assigned to the plebeians, subject to a tax called tribute, but not to rent. An agrarian law was a proposal to make an assignment of portions of the public lands to the people, and to limit the quantity of nat...« less