Smallholding, Frugality and Market Economy in the Gracchan Age

This chapter reconsiders the transformation of smallholding in the late second century BCE in relation to developments within Rome’s political economy in the decades after the Second Punic War, which had profound repercussions on economic activity broadly conceived, perhaps even triggering an ‘economic revolution’. The discussion focuses chiefly on landholding during the Gracchan Age (133–120 BCE), with a specific emphasis on the recurrence of frugal ideals in the political debate arising from the Gracchan reforms and the role of smallholdings in the face of significant changes brought about by the emergence of large market-oriented estates and related developments, such as the rise in the price of land, increase in the number of slaves, the consequences of imperial plunder and tax-farming and the management of the grain supply and subsidies. The chapter pays equal attention to the ideological framework that defined smallholding in the Gracchan age and its practical consequences.