Lex Sempronia

A lex Sempronia is a Roman law proposed by a member of the gens Sempronia. The most famous of these laws are those passed by the Gracchi brothers and especially the land reform law passed by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in 133 BC and the grain dole later passed by Tiberius' brother Gaius Sempronius Gracchus.

Lex Sempronia agraria (133 BC)

Diagrams, in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, of inscriptions left by the Gracchan land commission

Further information: Tiberius Gracchus and Lex agraria (111 BC)

Tiberius Gracchus proposed this law in 133 BC during his plebeian tribunate. The law provided for the creation of a three-man board to survey public lands and give them away with a small rent to poorer citizens. The public lands to be distributed were to be found by revoking the usage rights of those who occupied more than 500 jugera of land; in exchange, those 500 jugera would be assigned clear title and fully privatised.

The three-man board, titled triumviri agris iudicandis assignandis (three men for the assignment and surveying of agricultural land), was initially made up of Tiberius himself, his brother Gaius, and Appius Claudius Pulcher. After Tiberius' death at the hands of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum at the elections for the tribunate of 132 BC amid Tiberius' attempt to stand for a consecutive tribunate, his seat was filled by Publius Licinius Crassus. The authority of the triumvirs to survey land was severely restricted by a senatorial decree in 129 BC which found that the triumvirs were interfering in Rome's legal obligations to preserve its allies' property rights; the authority to make judgements on land titles was transferred to the consuls, hugely slowing the process of land distribution. Regardless, archaeological evidence implies that just between 133 and 129 BC the triumvirs distributed some 3,268 square kilometres of land, concentrated in southern Italy and capable of supporting some 15,000 households.

Lex Sempronia frumentaria (123 BC)

Gaius Gracchus passed this law during his plebeian tribunate in 123 BC establishing a subsidised grain supply at Rome where any male citizen – there were no eligibility requirements of means tests – could purchase some amount of grain at 61⁄3 asses per modius (approximately 1.5 imperial gallons volume). The costing was set at a rate approximately that of a good harvest year. Costs for the grain subsidy programme were passed to the state treasury.

Grain subsidies were later expanded by Lucius Appuleius Saturninus in 100 BC. The programme was abolished during Sulla's dictatorship but revived by the consuls of 73 BC, Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, reviving the original Gracchan scheme. Marcus Porcius Cato further expanded the grain dole during his tribunate in 62 BC before Publius Clodius Pulcher made the distribution entirely gratis during his tribunate in 58 BC.

Lex Sempronia judicaria (123 BC)

Gaius Gracchus passed this law during his plebeian tribunate in 123 BC, shifting the jury pool for the permanent courts (quaestiones perpetuae) from members of the senate to the equites.

Lex Sempronia de provinciis consularibus (123 BC)

Gaius Gracchus passed this law during his plebeian tribunate in 123 BC, requiring that prior to the consular elections, the senate would determine the consular provinces. Any disputes between the consuls afterwards elected would then be settled by lot or mutual agreement.

This law was superseded or repealed by the lex Pompeia in 52 BC which instead required that provinces be assigned to ex-magistrates only after a five-year delay.

Bibliography

• Broughton, Thomas Robert Shannon (1951). The magistrates of the Roman republic. Vol. 1. New York: American Philological Association.
• Carboni, Tiziana (2019). "Review of "A History of the Roman Equestrian Order"". Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
• Davenport, Caillan (2019). A history of the Roman equestrian order. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-03253-8.
• Drogula, Fred (2015). Commanders & command in the Roman republic and early empire. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-4696-2314-6. OCLC 905949529.
• Roselaar, Saskia (2010). Public land in the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-957723-1.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Long, George (1870). "Leges Semproniae". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: John Murray. pp. 698–99.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Frumentariae leges". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: John Murray. pp. 548–51.