THE HISTORY OF OLD ROME

IV. The Revolution

From: The History of Rome, by Theodor Mommsen
Translated with the sanction of the author by William Purdie Dickson

Chapter IX - Cinna and Sulla

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Page 22

The reactionary institutions established by Sulla in 666 were of course overthrown. Some steps were taken to please the proletariate--for instance, the restrictions on the distribution of grain introduced some years ago,(9) were probably now once more removed; the design of Gaius Gracchus to found a colony at Capua was in reality carried out in the spring of 671 on the proposal of the tribune of the people, Marcus Junius Brutus; Lucius Valerius Flaccus the younger introduced a law as to debt, which reduced every private claim to the fourth part of its nominal amount and cancelled three fourths in favour of the debtors.

9. Cf. IV. VII. Energetic Decrees

But these measures, the only positive ones during the whole Cinnan government, were without exception the dictates of the moment; they were based--and this is perhaps the most shocking feature in this whole catastrophe--not on a plan possibly erroneous, but on no political plan at all. The populace were caressed, and at the same time offended in a very unnecessary way by a meaningless disregard of the constitutional arrangements for election.

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