Appian and The Aftermath of The Gracchan Reform

Appian and the Aftermath of the Gracchan Reform
Author(s): Daniel J. Gargola

Source: The American Journal of Philology , Winter, 1997, Vol. 118, No. 4 (Winter,
1997), pp. 555-581
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1562052
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APPIAN AND THE AFTERMATH OF
THE GRACCHAN REFORM
Daniel J. Gargola
Appian's history of the gracchan reform is arguab

most detailed and coherent account of it. Early in the f
Civil Wars he outlines the development of a crisis in the co
the terms of the law Ti. Sempronius Gracchus (tr. pl. 1
remedy it; he describes the struggle to pass the measur
the tribune's opponents to block it; he tells of attempt
the law in the years after Tiberius' death; and he sum
islative agenda and the political activities of C. Grac
younger brother, when he was tribune of the plebs in 1
pian brings his history of the Gracchi to a close with
a series of laws put forward in the years following th
younger Gracchus and the ways they reversed earlier
form continued to be a central issue in the conflicts that w
Roman Republic to an end, and historians often have r
pian's short description of post-Gracchan legislation to
politics of the matter in the last two decades of the seco
ter all, he provides the only surviving overview of the
tion of these years. But scholars have found it difficult
pian's claims with other evidence. The problem, a closer
show, lies in the assumption that Appian produced or in
duce a straightforward and unbiased account and the re
tion that these measures should be easily and readily i
stead I argue here that Appian has presented a highly sc
of events that reveals more about his methods as a historia
about the laws themselves or the policies of those who
APPIAN'S ACCOUNT AND

MODERN INTERPRETATIONS OF IT
At first glance Appian's version (BC 1.27.121-24) of th

of reform is simple and straightforward. Using the death of
American Journal of Philology 118 (1997) 555-581 ? 1997 by The Johns Hopkins University Press

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556 DANIEL J. GARGOLA
as his starting point, Appian first reports

recipients of allotments to sell them and t
diately bought the land from the poor o
tribune, Spurios Borios or Bourios in th
posed a law ending the distribution of p
session were to own on payment of a r
distribution of the funds raised in this
tribune put an end to the rent and the
pended upon it. As a result, Appian ho
and there were still fewer citizens and soldiers. He finishes with a refer?
ence to a fifteen-year period, although an apparent lacuna makes its
significance uncertain.
Efforts to anchor this account firmly in the proper historical con?
text have focused on a range of issues that have proven remarkably dif?
ficult to resolve.1 The first problem concerns the relationship, if any, be?
tween Appian's three laws and other agrarian legislation known to have
been enacted in the years following the death of C. Gracchus. Cicero is
the sole source for one measure. On two occasions he makes vague ref?
erences to a law of Sp. Thorius that probably was passed in the latter
half of the penultimate decade of the century.2 Neither is very informa-
tive. One merely records a jest involving the pasturing of animals on
public lands made in the course of a senatorial debate on a lex Thoria?
The second is potentially more useful. In Brutus (136) Cicero notes
briefly the qualities as a speaker of a Sp. Thorius and connects him with
a law regulating public lands: Sp. Thorius satis valuit in populari genere
dicendi, is qui agrum publicum vitiosa et inutili lege vectigali [vectigale
codd.] levavit. These brief remarks provide the sole grounds for emend-
!For an overview of the debate see Johannsen 1971, 63-79; Meister 1974, 86-97;
Lintott 1992, 282-86.
2Cicero's Brutus (136) provides the only evidence for the date of the lex Thoria,
and that is very indirect. Acting on the assumption (on the whole justified) that Cicero
treated the orators in chronological order, examination of the names immediately before
and after that of Sp. Thorius has led some to conclude that Thorius' floruit should be
placed somewhere between about 120 and 110, with most placing it after 115; see D'Arms
1935; Douglas 1956; Douglas 1966, 247-50; Sumner 1973, 90-91.
3 Cic. De Or. 2.284: Sed ex his omnibus nihil magis ridetur, quam quod est praeter
exspectationem, cuius innumerabilia sunt exempla, vel Appii maioris illius, qui in senatu,
cum ageretur de agris publicis et de lege Thoria etpeteretur Lucilius ab eis, qui a pecore eius
depasci agros publicos dicerent, "non est" inquit "Lucilius pecus illud: erratis;"?defendere
enim Lucilium videbatur?"ego liberumputo esse: qua libetpascitur."

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APPIAN AND THE AFTERMATH OF GRACCHAN REFORM 557
ing the name of the author of Appian's second measure, Spurios Borios
or Bourios, to Sp. Thorius.4
Unfortunately, Cicero's seemingly simple characterization of the
Thorian law in Brutus can be interpreted in several ways. Accepting th
usual emendation of vectigale to vectigali, scholars have found reasons
to interpret the subordinate clause as reporting either the imposition o
the removal of a rent on public lands;5 those preferring the former gen?
erally take lege to be an ablative of separation and vectigali to be an ab
lative of means ("he relieved public land from a faulty and useless law
by means of an rent"), while those accepting the latter usually reverse
the construction ("he relieved public land from a rent by means of a
faulty and useless law"). Other solutions, based on different emenda-
tions, have also been proposed: instead of changing the vectigale of th
manuscripts to vectigali, some would render it as vectigalem, so that Cic?
ero would have claimed that Thorius relieved rent-bearing public land
by means of a law; others would emend the text more drastically by al
tering in some way the verb in the subordinate clause.6 Whatever th
proper reading, the passage still reveals little about the law, its aims, and
its context.
How does Cicero's Thorian law fit in Appian's narrative? This
question lies behind many attempts to clarify Cicero's meaning. Each
translation, after all, requires that the measure be linked to a differen
law in the series, and, as we shall see shortly, any attempt to identify one
of Appian's measures with the lex Thoria on the basis of chronology
also necessarily determines the preferred translation of Cicero's text
The orator's terse account in Brutus certainly reveals that the measure
in some way addressed the matter of rents on public lands. If Cicero di
4Because of difficulties involved in reconciling Cicero's Thorian law with Appian's

"Borian," some propose a different emendation of the name; see, e.g., Broughton 1951-85,
I 542; Develin 1979. No evidence, however, clearly associates the holders of names put for?
ward in this fashion with the passage of agrarian legislation at about this time. The identi
fication of Spurios Borios with Spurius Thorius is almost certainly correct; it should be ac?
cepted unless strong reasons unconnected to Appian's characterization of the measure
can be found to counter it.
5For a discussion of the problems presented by this passage see Badian 1964. On
linguistic grounds, Badian shows that Cicero most probably intended to claim that Tho?
rius "relieved the public land of a faulty and useless law by means of a rent."
6For vectigalem see Douglas 1966, 249; Lintott 1992, 283-84. For other emenda?
tions, see, e.g., Seager 1967 (changing levavit to vexavit) and Willcock 1982 (changing le-
vavit to locavit).

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intend to claim that Thorius had esta

would easily fit the second in the series
work of a "Spurios Borios." If, on the o
maintain that Thorius had freed the lan
Appian's laws would be a more appro
ment?to the extent that Cicero's and A
agree?is only at a very general level. Ci
covered by the rent nor indicates its sig
public land in general or for the fate of t
pian is the only guide.
Cicero's lex Thoria can be made to fit
pian's sequence, but the best-known law
the series only if one accepts that the G
misleading about crucial points. Extens
passed in 111 survive on parts of a bro
Bembina.7 Scholars have examined the
for signs that might permit the identifica
one of Appian's three. In this endeavor
veloped. The agrarian law of 111 is quite
lated public lands in a wide variety of lo
fragmentary text first sets out rules c
turns to public property outside the penin
important for our purposes, the framers
vate and certain problems and special
them and then turned to the regulation
though scholars have found reasons to i
second or the third of Appian's series, f
the establishment or the removal of a
sure's central feature, and some might q
firmed possession of Gracchan allotme
reactionary.
At a more technical level, the text of
pose or acknowledge as operating any
signed to his three measures?at least in
7For Mommsen's text of the law see CIL 1.2 5

For the most recent edition see Lintott 1992, 176
dence, is secure; see Lintott 1992, 282.
8For a summary of the contents of the law see

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the surviving portions of the law of 111 provide for the judicial con
mation of ownership acquired through a variety of means, but the
not acknowledge (or explicitly reject) the legality of any sales of tr
viral allotments by recipients, allegedly the central feature of App
first law.9 Then, while the framers of the law of 111 made private cert
types of public land, freed portions from a rent, and possibly impo
rent on others, these rules were not as wide-ranging as Appian por
them nor did they cover the same land. Appian's description of t
second law's provisions governing public land is simple: "the land
longer should be divided, but it should belong to those having it,
they should pay on it a rent to the people." The framers of the law
other words, privatized and made rent-bearing lands that had been
ject to distribution. Under the law of 133, only holdings above a lim
five hundred iugera were liable to confiscation and assignment, so
the bulk of the lands made private and rent-bearing must have c
from just these excess possessions.10 The law of 111, however, re
both a more limited change of status and a different rent. The mea
recognized as private both lands already assigned in some fashion
the Gracchan land commissioners and also holdings carved out of p
lic lands by private actions as long as they were within the legal limit e
tablished by the Sempronian law; public land held in excess of this
remained public property, and, at least in theory, available for fut
distribution. Finding Appian's rent in the law encounters many of
same problems. In lines 19 and 20, unfortunately fragmentary, the fra
ers addressed in some way the question of a rent on newly privat
lands, either imposing a payment or, more probably, removing on
Yet the rules regarding rent the framers set forth in these lines cover
only the lands they had declared private in earlier sections. Provisi
Appian assigns to the three laws, then, cannot be found in the
of 111?at least, they cannot be found in the way Appian represen
9See Lintott 1992, 48.

10Thus Niccolini 1934,180-81.
11 Mommsen (CIL 1.2 585), followed by Johannsen (1971,251-55) and Lintott (1
222), reconstructs the lines so that they would remove a rent, and is thus led to ide
the measure with Appian's third law. With much less plausibility, Saumagne (1927)
forward a supplement imposing a rent, although that requires increasing significantly
length of the line; he identifies the law of 111 with the second in Appian's sequence.

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them?so that Appian's characterization o

accurate or imprecise.12
Chronological problems pose an additi
Appian's chronology is very obscure. Asi
developments he is about to describe t
C. Gracchus and apart from vague phrase
gives only one indication of date. At the
places a long sentence that ends with a p
problems to be easily translatable:
608V eojcdviôv exi \iaXkov 6\iov jcoXixoo

tcqoo66od xai 6iavo[xd)v xai vofxcov, Jtev
xfjc; Tq&kxov vo[xo0eaiac;... em 6ixaic; ev
For our purposes, two features of the seg

xai5exa are especially important: the lack
the reason that editors place a lacuna at
any grammatical link (which again may h
ous elements. These are matters of some s
termine the relationship between that f
events that Appian recounts?the centr
quires their solution.
The subject of the final clause is reasonab
one might assume that there was no cha
tence. Thus, the subject of the verb eojr
ceding sentence?would also be the subject
would be claiming that the "people" were
of the developments he has just outlined;
Gracchan reform, Appian had attributed
^Traces of payments on certain restricted categ

have been used as evidence for Appian's rent, albeit n
Niccolini (1934, 180-81) sees in a payment imposed
as ager compascuus a sign that the measure was
pearances, that this was its rent, whereas Lintott (19
that the third law, which he identifies with the la
should be noted that the surviving wording, as Linto
dicates that the payment was not a rent, but rather
too much of this land.

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of estate-building.13 But a change of subject is likely, since a plausi

connection between popular idleness and the words em 5ixaig is no
readily apparent. Instead a word or words denoting the Gracchan
umvirs, the special commissioners established by Tiberius' law, prob
should be added: using similar phrasing, Appian earlier had descri
them as idle, when, as a result of Scipio Aemilianus' intervention in
no one brought them legal cases.14 As we shall see later, the place of
notice in Appian's narrative makes this conclusion even more likely
The terminal points for Appian's fifteen years have been the fo
of much more discussion. This is an important matter. Giving firm date
here should indicate the pace of change after the death of C. Gracc
and it can influence the identification of the Thorian law and the law of
111 with one or another measure in Appian's series. Some scholars have
suggested that the beginning be placed in one of the years in which
Gaius was tribune;15 thus the interval would have begun in 123 or 122
and ended in either 108 or 107. Appian, after all, uses the death of the
younger brother as the starting point for his description of the three
laws, and the sequence of legislative acts and their effects seemingly
would have required some time to unfold. A closer reading, however,
makes it clear that Appian begins in 133 with the passage of Ti. Grac?
chus' law. He proclaims the term to run "after the nomothesia of Grac?
chus" and he twice refers to Ti. Gracchus as nomothetes or uses the
word to distinguish him from his younger brother.16 He thus seem
have thought that whatever process he was describing was comple
fifteen years after 133, that is, in 118.
The passage of the Sempronian law of 133, then, most probab
formed the initial date, but what event brought these fifteen years
close? This is not an easy question. The concluding event or process
indeed, Appian ever stated it clearly, may lie concealed in the lacu
13App. BC 1.7.31, et 6e xai oxo^doeiav djto xouxcov, em apyiag diexiOevxo, xfjg y

imb xcov jttawoioov exoiiivng [xai] yeoooyolg xQWLievoov Oeodjtouorv avxi etauOeooov.
14App. BC 1.19.80, ol 6e xt]v yfjv 6iaveLiovxeg, oi5x djtavxoovxog eg auxoug ou&
eg 6ixt]v, ejti doyiag fjoav. For a fuller discussion see Gabba 1956, 66-68.
15See, e.g., Gabba 1956, 64-70; Gabba 1958, 96; Badian 1962, 211; Mattingly 1
288.
16App. BC 1.13.55, Todxxog auxog, 6 voLioOexng; 1.21.88, Taiog Todxxog, 6 rodxxou

xou voLioOexou veobxeoog d&etat>6g. See Cardinali 1912, 198-200 n. 2; Chantraine 1959,
20-21.

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which obscures not only the subject of

grammatical link between the phrase "
nomothesia of Gracchus" and the other elements of the sentence. Schol?
ars generally assume that the interval ended either with a law or with
some event that affected the powers of the triumvirate or their ability to
use them. On the surface, some clear connection to the laws seems
likely, for Appian does use the reference to conclude his account of
their passage and their effects. Given the location of the lacuna, it is
perhaps more likely that Appian originally provided a firmer connec?
tion between the interval and the clause containing yeyovoxeg, between,
that is, a term of fifteen years and those who became idle, namely the
triumvirs. Even if this is the case, however, it is entirely possible that
the triumvirs ceased their labors because of a law which either stopped
the distribution of land or put an end to the commissioners' term in
office.17
Connecting the end of the process with a law gives rise to a new
set of problems. Depending on when it ends, the interval of fifteen years
is either too short or too long to encompass in a straightforward manner
the known laws of the period. If the term began in 133 and ended in 118
with the passage of the final law, all of Appian's legislation would have
been enacted within four years of the death of Gaius Gracchus, proba?
bly too short a time to encompass all three laws and their effects, and
the lex Thoria and the agrarian law of 111 would lie outside the legisla-
tive series. For this reason, some investigators have suggested that the
second law, which supposedly stopped land distributions, brought the
fifteen years to a close. The lex Thoria and the law of the bronze tablet,
then, must either both be identified with the third measure or they must
be excluded entirely from the narrative, a consideration that has shaped
translations of Cicero's passage and reconstructions of lacunae in the in?
scription.18 Beginning in 123 or 122 and ending in 108 or 107 gives rise to
its own set of difficulties. There would be sufficient time after the death
of C. Gracchus to encompass all three laws, but the law of 111 is clearly
too early to be the final measure; if it was the second, then the law
should have imposed a rent on public lands newly made private, but
such an imposition is not easy to find in the surviving text. To permit
identification with the third law, some suggest that Appian's term is only
17Thus Chantraine 1959,15-28.

18See, e.g., T Mommsen's introduction to CIL 1.2 585, and Saumagne 1927.

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approximate?he does say "about" (malista)?so that it would end in

111, thirteen years after Gaius' first tribunate.19
The debate surrounding the contextualization of Appian's narra?
tive thus focuses on a relatively few issues: Which of Appian's laws wa
Cicero's lex Thoria! Which, the law of 111? When did Appian see the
Gracchan reform as ending? By using his brief descriptions of the pro
visions of laws and his vague indications of chronology, scholars have at
tempted to connect the known laws of the period with one or another of
Appian's measures and ascertain their significance for the dismantling
of the Gracchan reform. The discussion, as we have seen, is organized
around the usually unstated assumption that Appian's narrative is a rea
sonably accurate, if somewhat garbled or incoherent, representation o
what actually took place. But further consideration indicates that this
assumption is unjustified. As a first step, Appian's account of the after
math of the Gracchan reform must be viewed in relation to his broader
history of the Gracchan era.
APPIAN'S ACCOUNT OF THE GRACCHI
Appian begins his Civil Wars with a long and detaile

the tribunates of Ti. Gracchus and his brother Gaius, th
episodes of civil strife that make up the work. His narrat
few fairly discrete sections. First, he describes the origin
the countryside which had made reform desirable, and
rectly into a description of the measure Ti. Gracchus pr
with the situation (BC 1.7.26-1.8.34). Next (1.9.35-1.17.72
politics in Rome, reporting the rise of opposition to th
means Tiberius used to pass the law, his attempt to secur
tribune, and his murder at the hands of the pontifex ma
Nasica. Having narrated the events of 133 in this fashio
1.18.73-1.20.85) describes the fate of the reform over the nex
outlining the actions of the Gracchan commissioners in the f
ing opposition to them, especially on the part of the Ital
intervention by Scipio Aemilianus on behalf of these allie
this impaired the ability of the commissioners to implement
Next, Appian turns to the younger brother and his a
19See, e.g., Gabba 1956, 62-73; Mattingly 1971.

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opens by introducing the main issues (

the land reform and the extension of ci
to secure their support for the distributio
bunates follow (1.21.87-1.26.120): his pro
zens at public expense; his reelection as
his transfer of the courts from the Senat
build roads, found colonies, and give cit
frontation between C. Gracchus and M. Livius Drusus forms the most
dramatic element in this segment and introduces the factors that wou
lead to Gracchus' fall. Then Appian sets forth the circumstances su
rounding the assembly that led to the deaths of Gaius Gracchus, his a
M. Fulvius Flaccus, and many of their supporters. The narrative clos
with a description of three laws passed in the following years and th
ways they nullified the gains of the reformers, worsened the circum
stances of the poor, and caused damage to the interests of the state
(1.27.121-24). In the following section Appian begins his account of t
career of Saturninus, the second of the episodes of domestic violence
the Civil Wars.
Appian's history of the Gracchi, then, begins and ends with de?
scriptions of conditions in the countryside and their implications for the
poor and for the state. The first descriptive passage introduces Ti. Grac?
chus by recounting the appearance of conditions that made reform de?
sirable and outlining the law he proposed to remedy matters; for our
purposes I have termed this passage the "introduction." The second
describes the reappearance of the same problems after the death of
C. Gracchus; let us call it the "conclusion." Both introduction and con?
clusion, as the following sections will show, share common themes and a
common focus, and both have a remarkably similar structure.
THE INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION

AND THE LAW OF 133
The accounts Appian uses to frame his history of the Gr

focus on the law Ti. Gracchus introduced while tribune of t
133. For the introduction this is especially clear. Appian's de
the law and its background (BC 1.7.26-10.38) is simple. As a
their conquest of Italy, the Romans took land from those t
feated, and with it they established towns, assigned plots to
and sold or leased still other tracts. They also allowed othe

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out uncultivated sections for their own use, as long as they paid a rent
the treasury. The Romans intended these acts, he claims, to increase
numbers of Italic peoples, so that the Romans might have more allie
war. The rich, however, first took possession of the uncultivated l
and, by force or by purchase, began to acquire the lands of the p
who lived near them, creating over time large estates, worked by sl
As a result the rich became even richer and the number of slaves in-
creased greatly, while the numbers of Italians, exhausted by poverty,
taxes, and military service, declined. Then some tribunes, responding to
widespread concern, secured the passage of a law prohibiting anyone
from holding more than five hundred iugera of public land or of pastur-
ing on it more than a fixed number of animals. They thought the poor
would use the excess, but the rich either ignored the law or made but to-
ken efforts to comply with it. Matters remained unchanged until Ti.
Gracchus began his reform.
In this narrative Appian combines simple descriptions of tradi?
tional forms of exploitation and regulation?colonies, viritane assign-
ments, sale or lease, and the recognition of private exploitation (occu-
patio) under certain circumstances?with tendentious claims about the
goals they were intended to reach: to increase the population and, thus,
the pool of those eligible for military service by opening up land to the
poor. Colonization and viritane assignments certainly could have served
such an end, but measures authorizing the sale or lease of segments of
public land or recognizing the legality of occupatio could have done so
only with difficulty; for the former, the raising of revenue would have
been the most important goal, whereas the latter may only have recog-
nized and attempted to regulate an existing state of affairs about which
the state could do little?Appian also claims (1.7.27) that the Romans
issued their regulations because they lacked the time to turn the land to
other uses. The depiction of the law restricting the amount of public
land one could occupy and the number of animals one could pasture on
public property, a type of rule known to scholars as a law de modo agro-
rum, fits the same pattern.20 The provisions Appian assigns it are rea-
sonably accurate?at least other sources confirm the existence of a
pre-Gracchan law with the same maximum on cultivated land and some
limit on the pasturage of animals?but the goal he claims for it, the
20For the history of this class of legislation see Forsen 1991.

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same he gives to all early laws, is more s

identify the mechanism that would ha
claims that the legislators expected the p
freed by the rule. But the administrative m
involved in violations?criminal prosecuti
assemblies and the imposition of a fine?
ited goal, and other Greek and Latin aut
rum in the context of sumptuary legislat
relatively few cases of conspicuous excess
Appian's account introduces the Semp
which it can be seen as justifying. He im
description of Ti. Gracchus and the law h
pian continues themes he had addresse
ground to the reform, and he presents th
reasonable, and traditional response to t
outlined. Most obviously, he gives to this
to all earlier measures, thus establishing c
and showing the reform to be traditiona
Gracchus' proposal to be seen as the resto
fection of the first law de modo agroru
newed" the earlier measure; he claims tha
for the poor to take over the excess; and
the election of three special commission
impossible for the rich to ignore his law
he also reports that Ti. Gracchus' measur
ments made under its authority, thus prohi
to be the chief means by which the rich
The law of 133 also lies at the heart o
Gracchan agrarian legislation. Although h
reference to the death of C. Gracchus, he
nia agraria of 133 and ignores developme
which he has just recounted. The Sempro
in a narrative encompassed in but a few
ambiguously refers to it twice, and?if th
21 For the pre-Gracchan law see Cato, fr. 167 O

Ant. Rom. 14.12.22; Livy 6.35.4-5; Pliny HN 18.4.17;
8.6.3; Var. RR 1.2.9; Vell. Pat. 2.6.2-3.
22For a fuller discussion of these issues see Gar

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of Gracchus" in the clause that brings the account to a close refers

the lawmaking of the elder brother, as seems likely?he ends it all b
reminding the reader of it yet again. This is entirely reasonable. Ti.
Gracchus' measure opened the reform and embodied it. But Appia
goes much farther than this, for his history of the aftermath of the re?
form can be read as a justification for the law that began it and as an ex?
cuse for its apparent failure.
Throughout the concluding narrative Appian puts forward the
claim, at least implicitly, that the law of 133 had been successful and
the end failed only because of the machinations of the reformers' ene
mies. After reporting the second law and its consequences, he notes th
these events had brought to an end "the law of Gracchus, an excellent
and most useful measure, if it could have been carried out." His descrip
tion of the post-Gracchan laws, however, clearly operates on the as?
sumption that the measure had been carried out successfully, even if the
results lasted only for a short time. The first post-Gracchan law, accord?
ing to Appian, allowed "land over which they had quarreled to be so
by those holding it" with the result that "the rich at once bought fro
the poor or used force" so that conditions "became worse still for th
poor." Appian clearly intends that the words "the land over which the
had quarreled" be read as a reference to the Gracchan allotments, fo
he notes immediately that the Sempronian law had prohibited sal
(earlier, when introducing the law for the first time, at 1.10.38, he al
mentions just this provision), and the result requires that the poor be
possession at the start. Thus at the very beginning of the passage he a
sumes that the Gracchan reform had achieved widespread success: suff
cient numbers of the poor had been settled on the land that the elim
nation of their plots caused widespread distress.
Appian also proclaims the efficacy of an important provision of
the Sempronian law. By starting the reconstruction of large estates wit
the removal of the prohibition on sale, he may have wished to claim
that this provision actually had restrained the rich. In any case, he
clearly explains persistent and widespread poverty and the decline in
the number of potential conscripts not as signs of the ineffectiveness
the reform or of the failure of the triumvirs chosen to implement it, but
rather as the results of the passage of other laws that negated the Gra
chan college's work.
The passages that Appian uses to introduce and conclude his his?
tory of the Gracchan reform thus serve both to justify and to defend the
law of 133. But the similarities are even more profound, for closer com

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parison of the two shows that they shar

ingly were composed according to a com
STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES BETWEEN

THE INTRODUCTION AND THE CONCLUSION
Taken together, Appian's introduction and conclusio

closed and circular framework for the entire Gracchan ep
be seen at a number of levels. Most broadly, his account
Gracchan legislation not only explains the failure of the refo
restores just those conditions that had led Ti. Gracchus
law?and by the same means that had led to their firs
When setting the stage for the appearance of Tiberius' p
1.7.26-1.10.38), Appian describes the nature and the origin
the countryside, the effects this had on the state, and some
the law Tiberius proposed to remedy it; in his conclusio
the reappearance of just these conditions and problems. In
moreover, Appian makes purchase and force central ope
building of large estates, the core of the crisis in land u
concluding narrative he specifically notes that the reappea
processes was the direct result of the removal of a provisi
pronian law that earlier had blocked them. Both, then, por
crisis. The first identifies the problems and the reason fo
ance, and the second, how those same problems reapp
same means despite the efforts of the reformers.
But the similarities go even deeper, for Appian has co
conclusion so that it not only brings back earlier proble
processes, but also has them appear through the sam
stages. His account of the first appearance of the crisis a
that was to remedy it falls into four clear sections. In the fi
traditional forms of exploitation of public lands and ident
mon goal they were to reach. In the second he describes
which the rich subverted this system and the dire effects th
people and on the state. Then he identifies an unsuccessf
remedy the situation and specifies the reasons for its fail
describes the terms of the law that Ti. Gracchus proposed, id
the process individual elements that would enable this m
successful. The narrative of post-Gracchan developments
same series of stages, although each is shorter and less fu

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and the first is present only by implication. In both, moreover, Ap

constructs each stage with the same two elements: a description of a
a program, or a process; and a declaration of its significance in the
text in which he has placed it. This structural similarity is so close
one may suspect that the conclusion was constructed to reverse exa
the introduction.
For both, Appian uses as a starting point a time when public lands
were being used in the proper manner. He opens his introduction by
outlining the ways the Romans traditionally had used public lands and
the purpose these allegedly were to serve. In these lines he establishes
the base for his account of future developments, a time when a range of
traditional practices insured that the poor would be settled on the land
so that there might be enough men to serve in the army. No passage in
the conclusion serves the same role. Here Appian opens without pre-
liminaries by reporting the passage of the first of the post-Gracchan
laws. But by implication the Gracchan reform itself occupies the same
position. Appian's description of the aftermath of the reform, as we
have seen, clearly implies that the reform had achieved a considerable
amount of success, albeit temporary. As was the case before the rich
first began to build their estates, public lands once again had been dis-
tributed in small plots to the poor who would have been available for
military service. This situation also serves as the basis for the remainder
of the narrative.
In the following section of the introduction and in the opening
sentences of the conclusion, the parallels are more marked. In the for?
mer, Appian next reports the way things went wrong and why?the rich
built large estates on public land, in the process displacing the poor?
and identifies the dire consequences: "the powerful became quite rich,
and the race of slaves abounded throughout the land, the dearth and
lack of population took hold of the Italiots, worn out by poverty and
taxes and military service." When describing the first of the post-Grac?
chan laws in his conclusion, Appian moves through the same stages with
similar elements, processes, and results. This measure, passed not long
after the death of C. Gracchus, permitted those who had received allot-
ments to sell them with the result that the rich bought the land from the
poor or used force, so that "it became worse still for the poor."
This parallelism between the opening and concluding narratives
continues through the lines that immediately follow in both. In his in?
troduction and in his conclusion, Appian sets out a narrative that moves
from a time when lands were used for the good of the community to a

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time when lands were used for the good

the same processes and sets out the sam
conclusion only in a truncated form. In hi
ports that these developments had insp
sponding to the shortage of military m
danger presented by large numbers of s
carried with difficulty the first law de m
the people expected that the excess la
handed over to the poor in small lots. Inst
law or used pretexts to evade its provisi
For Appian, the first law de modo ag
successful and incomplete attempt to ad
we have seen, a partial movement towar
bodied in the Sempronian law of 133; i
Gracchan laws is also an imperfect ref
from the proper goal rather than towa
rios Borios carried a law that ended th
ownership of public lands to those holdi
law, as Appian immediately notes, brought
stituted by the Sempronian law of 133.
though land no longer was distributed
new rent was. Unlike his treatment of
measures, here Appian identifies more
the more complicated role of the secon
This law, as Appian has presented it, en
allowed reform to continue after a fash
Gracchan law de modo agrorum, Appian
form effort defective: the law was "a co
the distributions, but it was of no use
seems to imply that only the distributio
Appian's introduction ends with the
the third of the post-Gracchan measure
cupies a position analogous to it. Havin
oration the problems whose course of d
Appian goes on to describe the provisio
Gracchus' law renewed the earlier lex d
the earlier, failed law the proper means
of three men, thus making possible th
found in earlier times. Appian emphasiz
triumvirs "especially troubled the rich,

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fore to scorn the law on account of those distributing the land, nor
could they buy it from those who had received allotments, for Gracchus,
providing against this, had prohibited sales." Note that Appian here of
fers a second explanation for the failure of the first law de modo agro
rum: it did not establish officials to enforce its provisions.
The third of Appian's post-Gracchan laws also completes the sec
ond, but the final result is not the widespread use of public lands fo
public ends, but rather the return of the evils that had led Ti. Gracchu
and his predecessors to put forward their own laws. After describing the
second law and its consequences, Appian claims: "and not much later
another tribune put an end to the rent, and the people at once were d
prived of everything, and because of this there were still fewer citizen
and soldiers and revenue and distributions of land." Just as the first lex
de modo agrorum represented partial progress toward a reform that the
law of Ti. Gracchus would complete, so also did the second post-Grac?
chan law represent an imperfect movement away from reform that the
final measure would finish. While recounting the effects of the final
measure, it should be noted, Appian writes as if the distribution of land
had ended with it, a result he earlier had attributed explicitly to the sec?
ond law; this apparent inconsistency illustrates the strong emphasis in
his conclusion on the land reform. There may have been an additional
parallel: Appian ends his account of the pre-Gracchan situation and the
measure Ti. Gracchus put forward to remedy it by reporting the cre?
ation of the triumvirate and stressing its importance to the reform. Al?
though the lacuna makes certainty impossible, Appian probably also
completed his narrative of the end of reform with a reference to the tri-
umvirs, but one that removed them from the scene, thus clearly empha-
sizing the return of previous conditions.
Close examination of Appian's accounts of the beginning and the
end of the reform gives rise to some disquiet. Both can be read as a jus-
tification for the reform, and one seems to excuse its failure. Both lead
to the appearance of exactly the same conditions by exactly the same
processes. Both had their crises develop through the same stages in
much the same way, first defining an ideal to serve as a backdrop, then
outlining its subversion, which was followed by an incomplete move?
ment toward the final goal, and finishing with the attainment of this end.
In his introduction Appian seems to describe his laws and legal cate?
gories with reasonable accuracy; he merely assigns them a different
goal, one that better serves his purpose. The schematic fashion in which
he presents the post-Gracchan laws, however, may have affected

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strongly, if not determined, the provisio

the risk of distortion or substantial mis
signs that it did just this.
APPIAN'S NARRATIVE AS HISTORY
For historians, the accuracy of Appian's depiction of e

the death of C. Gracchus is a matter of considerable impo
reliable are his descriptions of laws? Did the measures hav
cance he gave them? Did he place things in the proper or
there just three post-Gracchan agrarian laws? Although cer
possible, at every level the signs are not good.
The overarching scheme that guided Appian in his cons
his account of the aftermath of the reform has shaped every
narrative. To follow the pattern of the introduction, Appian f
resume the process of estate-building, then he had to intr
perfect reform, and finally he had to eliminate this reform
he reported but three laws, the minimum his plan requir
assigned to each measure only those elements necessar
scheme?there are no others?so that a law's place in the se
ingly determined both the number and the nature of the p
signed to it. The first measure should have allowed the buil
estates to resume, so its core feature must in some way pe
courage this. Earlier, Appian had portrayed the rich as buil
tates through purchase and force and, when describing the
Sempronian law, he had noted that the measure barred the
ments so that the rich could not regain control. To fulfill
erly, then, the first post-Gracchan law ought to have remo
provision and, indeed, Appian's narrative has it do just this
else. The second measure must move farther away from true r
also keep alive something of the spirit of reform, however
pian gives this law provisions that ended the distribution
provided a less than satisfactory replacement. The third
completed the dismantling of reform, and again Appian h
it one feature, a provision that removed the monetary di
established by the second measure, the only attempt t
conditions, well-conceived or not, that he acknowledg
operating.
To what extent did the provisions Appian reports reflect actual
laws and their contexts? Because of the close fit between the number

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of laws and their terms, on the one hand, and the requirements of
scheme, on the other, one might easily suspect that some, or possibly a
details were either fabricated or substantially misrepresented. His
scription of the terms of the post-Gracchan laws and his character
tions of their significance for the reform certainly do not fit clearly t
other evidence for the legislation of the period. As we have seen, t
are no indications that any of the provisions Appian assigns to his t
laws?the legality of sales of allotments, the privatization of lands s
ject to distribution, or the imposition and later removal of a rent on ju
these lands?ever was in effect in the way he claims; here, inventio
significant and intentional distortion is likely. Any disquiet over th
curacy and importance of the provisions Appian assigns to his thr
laws can only be increased upon recalling how poorly his characte
tion of any of the measures fits the best-known law of the period.
law of 111 is far more wide-ranging than any of Appian's measures,
identifying it with either the second or the third of his laws requ
some manipulation either of Appian's account or of the text of the
scription. Indeed his portrayal of the third law as in essence oppose
all reform seems not to fit well a measure that recognized the legality
the Gracchan allotments, including those made around Carthage un
the terms of a lex Rubria, which earlier had been repealed at the in
gation of Gaius Gracchus' opponents.
Our suspicion that the demands of his scheme may have dete
mined what was included and how it was presented may shed ligh
one further problem. If Appian included his final reference to the triu
virs simply because his plan required that he bring to an end his acc
of the dismantling of the reform with some statement that either term
nated the commission or its activities, then, in the text as it origin
stood, there may never have been a strict, clear, and logical link
tween the passage and the rest of the narrative. Nothing in the acco
as it now stands clearly links the college, the term of fifteen years,
any legislative act?Appian does claim that the second of the p
Gracchan laws ended the distribution of land, but he does not say h
the law accomplished this?and the words em Sixaig seem to conne
the idleness of the triumvirs with legal judgments or proceedings ra
than with the passage of a law. Thus, the inactivity of the triumvi
and the end of the term of fifteen years (if the Jievxexai5exa îcd
exeoiv ctjxo xfjg TqAxxov voîoOeoiag formed part of the same clau
need not have been connected directly to any of the laws whose pas
Appian has just recounted, and, indeed, it is possible that the fift
year interval and the term in office of the triumvirs did not ove

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much in time with the period covered

chan laws.
Certainly the commission could have ceased to operate in other
ways. The reform required administrators willing to exercise their func?
tion: new triumvirs would have had to be elected to replace the fallen,
and these replacements would have had to be willing to make use of
their powers. In the 130s vacancies on the board, which seemingly oc?
curred only as a result of the death of an officeholder, regularly were
filled, but this need not have been the case after 121. In that year two of
the three commissioners, C. Gracchus and M. Fulvius Flaccus, were
killed. The remaining triumvir, C. Papirius Carbo, became consul in 120,
which implies both that he had made his peace with the opponents of
reform and that he would have had little time that year to participate
actively in the commission's activities; Carbo died in the following
year.23 For these years, moreover, no source notes any elections or pro?
vides any names of new commissioners.24 Plutarch (Ti. Gracch. 21) re?
ports that after the death of Ti. Gracchus in 133 the Senate, wishing to
conciliate the people, recommended that a new triumvir be chosen;
twelve years later, the leaders of the Senate probably would have been
more opposed to reform and less open to conciliation. It is possible,
then, that the commission ceased activity with the deaths of the major?
ity of its members in the thirteenth year after it was first established and
that it no longer had any official existence following the death of the fi?
nal triumvir in the fifteenth. Carbo, it should be noted, committed sui?
cide to evade the penalties that would have been imposed as a result of
his conviction in the courts, an event that could have been described
loosely as resulting in the commission's idleness em 5ixaig.
WTiat, then, does Appian's narrative of the aftermath of the re?
form show? Constructed according to a scheme that set the way laws
were characterized and the provisions that were given them, Appian's
account provides no real evidence for the legislation of this period, for
all of its core features?the number of laws, their purpose, their effects,
23For the deaths of Gracchus and Flaccus see App. BC 1.26.114-20; Plut. C. Gracch.
17; Liv. Per. 61. For the death of Carbo see Cic. Brut 103,159, De Or. 1.40,1.154, Verr. 2.3.3.
24Cichorius (1922, 113-17) suggests that a heavily restored inscription found at
Carthage (ILS 28) shows that the places on the commission made vacant by the deaths
were filled, but the text provides no certain evidence since most of the names and any
identification of the office are all lost; see Broughton 1951-85, I 522-23 n. 5; Molthagen
1973, 437-38.

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and even their place in the series?form essential parts of a larger p

tern. Yet the passage can serve as a basis for investigations into th
methods Appian used when composing his history.
THE HISTORY OF THE GRACCHI IN THE CIVIL WARS
Our conclusions about Appian's description of post

agrarian legislation may help clarify certain problematic fe
remainder of his account of the Gracchan reform and also
a glimpse into his methods of composition. Almost certai
did not compose the account of the dismantling of the ref
on his own. Recent years have seen a justifiable reaction a
extremes of Quellenforschung. Like other Greek and Roma
who wrote of events occurring before their lifetimes, Ap
have depended on the works of earlier authors, but these
sources are largely, and probably irrevocably, lost to us. A
is what survives, and we can see directly only the way he
chose to include.25 Recognizable traces of earlier works ma
less be detected, despite any adaptations the later writ
made while turning the material to his own ends. Here, st
agendas and practices that diverge sharply from those di
where in the surviving work may provide the clearest indic
Appian's text provides such traces. The first book of the C
is basically a series of staseis. Each episode of discord is but
nected to the others, and the transitions are often vague a
Only for the Gracchan episode does Appian provide forma
ing introductions and conclusions; the others do not begi
neatly or so elegantly. Moreover, Appian uses his account
bunates of the two Gracchi to introduce his themes of civil disorder and
start the long series of violent confrontations that would follow in suc-
ceeding episodes. To do this he has only to emphasize a few aspects:
conflict over land, the courts, and citizenship and the use of violence to
promote or oppose a particular program. He need not have presented
the land law of Ti. Gracchus so favorably, nor need he have constructed
such an elaborate excuse for its apparent failure. By defending so
strongly Ti. Gracchus' reform, Appian's description of the three post-
25For recent studies emphasizing the unity of Appian's work see Goldmann 1988;
Gowing 1992.

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Gracchan laws, and indeed much of hi

would seem to serve an end that woul
probably carried these features over f
match between introduction and conc
into our text together.
There are also strong signs that the
pian's presentation of events in the yea
reform and its end. Prominent discont
tions of the activities of the two brother
ment of a crisis, of Ti. Gracchus' reme
of the triumvirs to implement it?and a
form at the end of the Gracchan episo
back to Tiberius' program?Appian has
and regularly uses the categories "rich
flict. When he turns to the activities o
other issues and contestants come to t
grain law, his reelection as tribune, his
building activities, his colonial project,
ship for the Latins; he defines the stru
in terms of "citizens" and "Italians"
"people." In that long list of progra
prominence. He devotes the most atten
allies: he establishes the reason that C
ported extending citizenship to the alli
structing the land reform); he notes Fl
a law arranging it; and he describes G
Latins citizens and its political conse
prominence to only one other element
effort to shift control of the courts from
again he notes the rationale for the act
torial defendants widely thought to be gu
ening of the Senate, the consequent ris
and the introduction of a new source of
Among all this legislation Ti. Gracc
conflict over the use of public land to
an's treatment of Gaius' colonial leg
uninformative: "and he proposed man
M. Livius Drusus' colonial program (BC
and he includes it primarily to begin C
Gracchus' attempt to found a colony at

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set the stage for the assembly at Rome that would lead directly to G
chus' death. Nowhere does he attempt in any way to relate these pr
ects to the broader question of land reform or to the law of 133, w
earlier had occupied such a central place in his account.
This disjunction between Appian's account of the reforms of
Gracchus and what went before and came after can be explained in
eral ways. Conceivably, the change in emphasis may indicate only a
in the source Appian was following, perhaps accompanied by a sim
lack of attention to details.26 But it is just possible that it served a mor
conscious purpose. Book 1 of the Civil Wars contains three episod
civil disorder that lead into the greater stasis of Sulla, which begin
continuous narrative that extends through the remainder of the w
Although treated as distinct, the staseis that center on the Gracchi
turninus, and the younger Drusus share prominent elements: all inv
the use of violence to promote or oppose a particular program; each
cuses on contests over the passage of legislation that in some way e
body larger conflicts. Appian's account of the Gracchi emphasizes st
gles over the use of public land, over relations with the allies, and
control of the courts. His description of Saturninus' career (1.28.1
1.33.149) again has as a central issue the use of land, to which he
nects the allies tangentially: the residents of the city were anger
because Saturninus' land law gave Italians a share. Finally (1.34
1.36.164), he portrays Drusus as putting forward a legislative progr
consisting of a land law, a citizenship law, and a measure sharing con
of the courts between the Senate and the equestrian order.
It has been suggested that a problematic feature in Appian's
troduction to the Gracchan reform can best be explained as an atte
to link together these otherwise separate histories. When outlining
history of the use of public lands before 133 and the law Ti. Gracc
introduced in that year, Appian uses two different sets of terms to ide
tify the groups in conflict, the victims, and the intended beneficia
Most often he describes developments in terms of "rich" and "po
On other occasions, however, his terminology is confused: sometim
writes as if the primary victims of the formation of large estates
the intended beneficiaries of Ti. Gracchus' program were "Italiots
whereas on other occasions, especially in the speeches of the reform
26For examples of Appian's ability to create confusion see Bucher 1995; Kon
1995.

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he refers to them as "citizens." His ass

iots" in Roman schemes involving pu
with other evidence for the traditional use of such lands?citizens and
occasionally Latins were the usual recipients of allotments?and A
pian largely ignores the claim in his subsequent description of the im
plementation of the reform and in his account of its dismantling. Pe
haps he has attempted here, rather awkwardly and imperfectly, to bring
forward the question of the relationship between Rome and its alli
and connect it to the use of land?two major themes?at the earli
possible moment.27 Just conceivably, in his account of the tribunates
C. Gracchus, Appian may also have chosen to emphasize the allies an
the courts, rather than the land reform, in order to strengthen furt
the thematic continuity over the first episodes of civil strife by bringin
forward all the central issues as early as possible.
But Appian's version of C. Gracchus' endeavors serves much
more clearly an end more closely related to the present investigation:
dropping a discussion of the land reform when he does, he makes pos
ble the account of the aftermath of the reform as it now stands. In his
conclusion to the entire Gracchan episode he operates on the assump?
tion that the law of 133 as originally conceived was still operating up t
the death of C Gracchus: at least its successes were still in place at tha
time, and its triumvirs still remained active. Yet he also provides infor
mation which could be used to undermine this assumption. When re-
counting events between the tribunates of the two brothers, he presents
a strong image of a stalled reform. His account of the actions of the
Gracchan triumvirs after the death of the elder Gracchus (1.18.73-77) i
largely a catalogue of difficulties. Here the commissioners' actions ar
presented positively. He blames problems on the failure of the rich to
cooperate, he excuses disruptions by claiming that the original survey
had not been made carefully, and he notes that the illegal activities of
the rich were hard to detect. He uses this summary of obstacles to in-
troduce the intervention of Scipio Aemilianus (1.19.78-1.21.90), who, at
the request of allies who feared losing land, impeded for a time the abi
ity of the triumvirs to hear cases. Moreover, he reports that after th
death of Scipio Aemilianus in 129, those who held the land blocked it
division by various means for a long time; shortly afterward he claim
that "the people, so long in hope of land, became disheartened."
2?See Cuff 1967.

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Left unmodified, this picture of a moribund reform could h

served as the basis for a different history of the end of the Gracc
land program?and Appian does report some of the events needed
construct such a history. Gaius Gracchus, we know, attempted to
into law a more variegated legislative program. He not only introd
measures to help the urban poor through the subsidized sale of g
but also reenacted, with some modifications, his brother's land la
legislative act Appian has left unrecorded) and added to the agrar
reform laws ordering the foundation of colonies, a shift in tactics
the procedures envisioned by his brother.28 Appian's portrayal o
stalled reform, then, could have formed the first stage of a long and d
namic process in which the difficulties in implementing the pro
were aggravated by the opposition of Rome's allies so that the ref
ers themselves changed their goals and their methods. Yet Appian
ther develops nor contradicts the picture created by his account o
difficulties faced by the triumvirs. Instead he seemingly brings the
reform to an impasse and leaves it there; for, as we have seen, he large
drops any further discussion of it.
Despite their differences, Appian's depiction of Ti. Gracchus
form, his description of C. Gracchus' activities, and his narrative o
end of the reform are constructed in at least one important way ac
ing to a common plan. Appian once refers (1.33.150) to the tribunat
Ti. and C. Gracchus as two separate conflicts, and the differing tr
ment accorded the programs of the two brothers would seem to confir
that he did write his history as if that were so. Nevertheless, our conc
sions about the relationship between his introduction and his concl
suggest that this was not entirely the case. As we have seen, App
description of post-Gracchan laws and their effects refers back c
stantly to his earlier account of the development of a crisis and th
pearance of Ti. Gracchus' remedy, and it presents the original refor
long in force. Although the transition between his description of
triumvirs' activities and his version of the career of C. Gracchus is
abrupt and awkward, it does have one very clear result: because of the
sudden shift in emphasis, nothing in Appian's history of Gaius' tribu?
nates interferes in any way with his depiction of the continuing central-
ity of the law of 133 in the long history of the reform. Apparently h
28See Liv. Per. 60; Vell. Pat. 2.6.2-3. For Gaius' agrarian legislation see Stockton
1979, 131-37; Gargola 1995, 163-67.

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either constructed the account of the yo

erately so as not to do so, in the proces
material that might conflict, or he borr
haps with some adjustments, an account
appropriated the bulk of his history of th
single author who already had perform
University of Kentucky
e-mail: djgargOl@ukcc.uky.edu
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Badian, E. 1962. "From the Gracchi to Sulla." Historia 11:197-24

-. 1964. "The Lex Thoria: A Reconsideration." In his Studies in Greek and
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Broughton, T. R. S. 1951-86. The Magistrates ofthe Roman Republic. 3 v
York and Atlanta: The American Philological Association and Sch
Press.
Bucher, G. S. 1995. "Appian BC 2.24 and the Trial de ambitu of M. Aemilius

Scaurus." Historia 44:396-421.
Cardinali, G. 1912. Studi graccani. Atti della R. Universita di Genova 20. Gen
Chantraine, H. 1959. Untersuchungen zur rbmischen Geschichte am Ende des
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Appian's history of the gracchan reform is arguab

APPIAN'S ACCOUNT AND

At first glance Appian's version (BC 1.27.121-24) of th

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as his starting point, Appian first reports

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4Because of difficulties involved in reconciling Cicero's Thorian law with Appian's

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intend to claim that Thorius had esta

7For Mommsen's text of the law see CIL 1.2 5

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9See Lintott 1992, 48.

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them?so that Appian's characterization o

608V eojcdvi^ov exi \iaXkov 6\iov jcoXixoo

For our purposes, two features of the seg

^Traces of payments on certain restricted categ

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of estate-building.13 But a change of subject is likely, since a plausi

13App. BC 1.7.31, et 6e xai oxo^doeiav djto xouxcov, em apyiag diexiOevxo, xfjg y

16App. BC 1.13.55, Todxxog auxog, 6 voLioOexng; 1.21.88, Taiog Todxxog, 6 rodxxou

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which obscures not only the subject of

17Thus Chantraine 1959,15-28.

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approximate?he does say "about" (malista)?so that it would end in

APPIAN'S ACCOUNT OF THE GRACCHI

Appian begins his Civil Wars with a long and detaile

19See, e.g., Gabba 1956, 62-73; Mattingly 1971.

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opens by introducing the main issues (

THE INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION

The accounts Appian uses to frame his history of the Gr

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20For the history of this class of legislation see Forsen 1991.

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same he gives to all early laws, is more s

21 For the pre-Gracchan law see Cato, fr. 167 O

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of Gracchus" in the clause that brings the account to a close refers

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parison of the two shows that they shar

STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES BETWEEN

Taken together, Appian's introduction and conclusio

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and the first is present only by implication. In both, moreover, Ap

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time when lands were used for the good

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strongly, if not determined, the provisio

APPIAN'S NARRATIVE AS HISTORY

For historians, the accuracy of Appian's depiction of e