[Footnote 168: E. Meyer (_Geschichte des Alterthums_, ii, 518), alleges a common misconception as to the _ager publicus_ being made a subject of class strife; but does not make the matter at all clearer. Cp. Niebuhr, _Lectures on the History of Rome_, Eng. tr. 1-vol. ed. pp. 153-54, 407, 503.] [Footnote 169: Shuckburgh, _History of Rome_, pp. 93, 94. Cp. Long, _Decline of the Roman Republic_, ch. xii, and Pelham, pp. 187-89, as to the frauds of the rich in the matter of the public lands.] [Footnote 170: W.T. Arnold, _Roman Provincial Administration_, 1879, p. 26.] [Footnote 171: Finlay, _History of Greece_, Tozer's ed. i, 39.] [Footnote 172: When Julius Cæsar abolished the public revenue from the lands of Campania by dividing them among 20,000 colonists, the only Italian revenue left was the small duty on the sale of slaves (Cicero, _Ep. ad Atticum_, ii, 16).] [Footnote 173: _Ep. ad Atticum_, iv, 15 (16).] [Footnote 174: Cp. Niebuhr, _Lectures on Roman History_, Eng. tr. 1-vol. ed. pp. 227, 449; Gibbon, Bohn ed. iii, 404; v, 74-75.] [Footnote 175: _Orat. pro M. Fonteio_, v. Cp. Long, _in loc._ (_Orationes_, 1855, ii, 167).] [Footnote 176: Dr. Cunningham, preserving the conception of Rome as an entity with choice and volition, inclines to see a necessary self-protection in most Roman wars; yet his pages show clearly enough that the moneyed classes were the active power. He distinguishes (p. 161) "public neglect" (of conquered peoples) from "public oppression." But the public neglect was simply a matter of the control of the exploiting class, who were the effective "public" for foreign affairs. Compare his admissions as to their forcing of wars and their control of justice, pp. 163, 164.] [Footnote 177: The fullest English account of the matter is given by Long, _Decline of the Roman Republic_, iv, 423-27, following Savigny. Cp. Plutarch's account of the doings of the _publicani_ in Asia (_Lucullus_, cc. 7, 20). Lucullus gave deadly offence at Rome by his check on their extortions, as P. Rutilius Rufus had done before him (Pelham, _Outlines of Roman History_, 1893, pp. 198, 283; Ferrero, i, 183). The lowest rate of interest charged by the _publicani_ seems to have been 12 per cent. (Niebuhr, _Lectures_, 1-vol. ed. p. 449). We shall find the same rates current in Renaissance Italy.]