Harry Potter’s Morning Light

Chapter 3123 viaticum (1)

Pomona placed a pile of books on the library table, put some black tea and snacks, and then randomly selected one from them.

 She bought these books from a Muggle bookstore. They have very fashionable and exquisite bindings, as if they are some kind of works of art.

The book she chose is about the history of the settlement of veterans in Rome, as well as the history of land reform. From Tiberius Gracchus to Octavian becoming Augustus, it almost covers all the most thrilling stories in ancient Rome during this period. moment.

In 133 BC, Tiberius Gracchus was elected as a tribune and proposed a land reform plan in which each person's "public land" should not exceed 500 yuges, and those with heirs should not exceed 1,000 yuges. The excess portion would be paid. The land was nationalized on condition that the land price be paid.

In Latin, the land reformed by Tiberius Gracchus is called "agerpubilicasoccapalorius", where "occapalorius" refers to temporary occupation rather than ownership, that is, illegally occupied public land, so theoretically Tiberius Gracchus There is a reason for redistribution.

After the assassination of Tiberius Gracchus, Gaius Gracchus continued his reforms, this time enacting the Land Law. The public lands he distributed were not expropriations of the original owners, so there was no brother in the implementation of his law. The impact is large.

 But he proposed the idea of ​​establishing settlements and promulgated immigration laws. This was not his first initiative. It had existed in the early years of the Republic, but the establishment of settlements for economic purposes was his first.

 Capua, Tarentum, and Carthage have always been prosperous commercial areas in the Western Mediterranean. During the Second Punic War, Capua and Tarentum once fell to Carthage, and they were punished by Rome. During the Third Punic War, Carthage was directly razed to the ground, which also affected Roman trade, especially regarding food.

When Gaius Gracchus served as tribune, the Sicilian uprising had just ended and the provinces in North Africa were plagued by locust plagues. In order to stabilize food prices, Gaius Gracchus promulgated a food law and limited supply to Roman citizens.

If citizens are allowed to buy freely, then some wealthy people will inevitably take advantage of this opportunity to buy in large quantities. Even if they are not hoarding, just for peace of mind, it will also cause price fluctuations.

At this time, it became extremely important to restore the grain trade between Carthage and Mahinissa. However, Gaius Gracchus' bill was opposed by the Senate.

Carthage must be destroyed. The Romans paid too much to destroy Carthage. During the Punic War, Rome invested almost all its financial revenue in it. How could it be rebuilt just by listening to Caius Gracchus?

What's more, before this, the Romans had never established a colony outside Rome and Italy, and Carthage was the first.

After a series of debates and votes, the Senate finally agreed to establish colonies in Capua and Tarentum first, and the only people who went there were Roman citizens with well-off families.

But Gaius Gracchus never gave up Carthage's bill to establish a colony. In ancient Rome, there was a kind of freed slaves. They were so-called semi-citizens. Although their status was lower than Roman citizens, they were higher than other conquered peoples. These freed slaves The slaves were mainly Greeks, with some Syrians and residents of the Eastern Mediterranean.

These freed slaves must also be distinguished. If they are slaves of the head of state, then they will stay in a relatively low position for a period of time, and then suddenly be transferred to a position that ordinary Roman citizens would never imagine in their lifetime, entering the administrative agency, and even the Roman nobles. Feel envious and never treat them as slaves.

The era of Gaius Gracchus was still a republic. He succeeded his brother Tiberius Gracchus as consul and was re-elected as tribune. When he stepped down from the position of tribune, the new consul proposed this plan.

However, on the day the bill was announced, one of the consul's attendants was killed, and the next day the Senate sent out troops. Three thousand of Gracchus' followers were captured and executed, and the Tiber River was stained with blood.

 Then it was Caesar's turn to implement land reform. In 59 BC, when Caesar became consul for the first time, he proposed a land distribution plan to the Senate. In 100 BC, due to the problem of settling Marius' veterans, the civilian tribunes also proposed to establish colonies, and the two legions obtained the fertile land of Africa.

However, these reforms are not comparable to Caesar's in terms of scale or influence.

Caesar's request was to allocate a piece of land called Styras and Campania to the poor. One of the two pieces of land was public land, which had been rented out, and the other was dedicated to the gods. They were both the most popular in Rome. Fertile, Caesar wanted these plots to be redeemed at a price determined by the compilation of the citizen property survey, rather than by force or at a price fixed by the person presiding over the distribution.

 Does anyone want the land in the Sahara Desert? What's more, when the citizen property survey form was compiled, some people cheated and bought good land at such a cheap price, and the money was paid by the state treasury.

At that time, Pompey and Caesar had a good relationship. They walked arm-in-arm and smiling. Pompey had seized the spoils in the treasury. Caesar said that these were obtained by citizens risking their lives and were their "income from labor", so they should be used for citizens. These lands were mainly distributed to fathers with at least three children.

 In other words, these fertile lands were given to Pompey and Caesar's old subordinates, as well as 20,000 destitute Roman citizens.

The poorer they get, the better they get. These people and Pompey's veterans formed an important support force for Caesar. Caesar allowed them to live the life of Roman citizens. They could now enter places that they could not enter before.

 After the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, the first thing he did was to resettle veterans. He established many colonies in Italy. These colonial blocks were not connected in one piece, so as not to drive away the original owners.

When Caesar put down the mutiny for the first time in 47 BC, he said in his speech: "I will definitely distribute the land to all the soldiers, not like Sulla, who took the land from the existing land owners. Mixing the present landowners with the landowners of the past makes them eternal enemies of each other.”

 In addition, there were a large number of colonies in Gaul, Africa, Achaea, and Asia. Caesar completely adopted the Roman model in these colonies.

The veterans were used to listening to operas in Rome. If they didn’t exist in these remote areas, they could build them themselves. If they wanted to take a bath in a Roman bathhouse, they could build one themselves.

These colonial cities are almost all miniatures of Rome, even including Corinth in Greece, where the Romans began to try to Romanize Greece.

In the autumn of 43 BC, Octavian, Antony and Lepidus met on a desolate island and established the latter three giants.

In order to defeat Brutus and the Republicans who assassinated Caesar, they agreed that the soldiers could have 18 Italian cities as colonies among other "gifts". These cities were all the most beautiful cities in Italy, and they all had owners. .

After the republicans were suppressed, Antony went to Egypt and Octavian returned to Italy, distributing the municipal lands to them as promised, using the forced colonial law.

Logically speaking, the original owners who were deprived of their land should be compensated, but without money at the time, these men, women, and children brought their families and everything they had to Rome and cried loudly in the square and in front of the temple, opposing Octavian's policies. In 30 BC, Octavian defeated Antony and became the sole master of Rome. After that, he distributed land to the veterans twice. However, these two times were different. Octavian paid compensation to the municipality and the Italian city paid 6 100 million sestiles, the provincial land is 260 million sestiles, which is the price of Cleopatra’s 8.6 pearl earrings.

In 6 AD, Augustus established a special treasury with inheritance taxes and auction taxes as its financial resources to pay the veterans' allowances. The state stipulated their service period and post-service rewards based on their military ranks. At this point, Rome was basically over. The history of land transfer to private ownership and the resettlement of veterans.

Since the establishment of the Egyptian province, Augustus has banned Roman senators and knights and above from entering Egypt, and restricted Roman immigration. Therefore, Egypt has continued the ruling policy that began in the Ptolemaic era and relied on the Hellenistic social elite to rule Egypt. .

The hierarchy of the Egyptian provinces is roughly as follows: the first class is Roman citizens, who are very few in number, mostly Roman governors and high-ranking officials; the second class is veterans and Greeks who have obtained Alexandria citizenship; the third class is Roman citizens. The third class were Greeks living in the other four Greek cities, and the Egyptians were at the bottom...

 “You look quite comfortable.”

 Pomona raised her head and saw Minerva.

"I heard that you attended the party yesterday and saw Severus?" Minerva asked.

“Not only did I see him, I also said hello to him.” Pomona returned his gaze to the book.

 “What did you say to him?” asked Minerva.

 “What do you say when you say hello to your colleagues?” Pomona said coldly.

"How about we make an exchange?" Minerva knocked on the desk. "The parents of the girl who was kidnapped last semester came to us for an explanation."

"I think that's the vice principal's business." Pomona said coldly.

 “I thought you were friends,” said Minerva.

 Pomona said nothing.

　　"What didn't you learn when you were with James and the others? For example, how to be with friends..."

 “Just kidding,” she interrupted Minerva.

 “Be conscientious.” Minerva said seriously. “I think this is the difference between us and the mysterious man.”

 “He has not made any progress and has been stuck in the past.” Pomona turned a page of the book, but did not read a word.

 “Then change him,” said Minerva.

"It's not that easy." Pomona put down the book and looked at Minerva. "People of their kind are like that."

 “You gave up on him?” Minerva asked.

"First of all, I have to make him want to change. If he doesn't want to change, but I force him to change, I will be like Sirius's mother."

"I don't think he is the same person as Sirius Black," said Minerva.

"Let me tell you something, Minerva, you can't get a girl just by being devoted. I didn't hear that Sirius was passionate about that girl, but he is very popular with girls."

 “That’s not what I meant.”

“It’s the same thing to me.” Pomona shook her head. “Women make men attractive, not mothers.”

"What?"

“Who do you think has the final say in the James family?” Pomona asked.

 Minerva did not answer.

"The Sirius family is the same, and he escaped from that home." Pomona stood up. "You are right, they are indeed not the same people."

 Then Pomona left the library.

 (End of this chapter)