The problem facing the new-look agrarian commission was that any ager publicus that was easy to identify and parcel out had already been identified and parceled out. All that remained was disputed property. For every disputed boundary the commission had to undertake a thorough investigation to assess rival claims. This was a process made nearly impossible if owners could not produce deeds, and if sellers could not produce receipts. Hostile ambiguity often reigned and the work of the commission slowed considerably.43
No boundaries created more hostility than those between Rome’s ager publicus and land owned by her Italian Allies. It was nearly impossible to disentangle ager publicus held by the Senate and People of Rome from ager publicus held by an Allied city. No less than their Roman counterparts, wealthy Italians had absorbed public land onto their estates while poor shepherds relied on public land to graze their flocks. The arrival of these Roman land commissioners looking to confiscate property threatened everyone’s livelihoods, but without the ability to stand for themselves in a Roman judicial proceeding, the Italians needed a Roman patron to protect their interests. They found a champion in Scipio Aemilianus, now taking the stage for the final public act of his long and storied career.44
Aemilianus’s reasons for entering the fray on behalf of the Italians were varied and not wholly magnanimous. First, it would boost his own prestige enormously. His aristocratic disdain for the fate of Tiberius had estranged him from the populace of Rome, so he now positioned himself to broaden his base of political support. Second, by pushing back against the land commission, Aemilianus hoped to reconcile with his colleagues in the Senate. He had spent his life thumbing his nose at their traditions, but Aemilianus would earn back much goodwill if he killed the despised land commission. Finally, there may have been a collective desire on the part of the Senate to at least appear to take the complaints of the Italians seriously. Full integration of Italy was not what the Senate desired, but by positioning themselves as sympathetic to the Italians, they might buy enough support to permanently avoid calls for more drastic reform.45
In 129, Aemilianus delivered a speech in the Senate arguing that the commissioners were violating treaties, and that because borders with Allied land was a matter of foreign policy and not domestic affairs, disputes between the commission and the Italians should be arbitrated by a consul. The Senate agreed and passed a decree supporting Aemilianus’s recommendation. This decree did not have the literal force of law, but now that the land commission was run by three relatively junior politicians, the weight of the Senate’s opinion prevailed. But by now nearly all available land bordered Italian property, so the senatorial decree brought the work of the land commission to a grinding halt. The commission was not formally abolished, but its ability to act was fatally curtailed.46
Aemilianus then moved the debate into the Forum where he held forth in front of the crowds, laying the groundwork for either significantly amending, or outright repealing, the Lex Agraria. But he was, once again, greeted by the plebs urbana, who were angry he was taking the side of the Italians. Cries went out that Aemilianus was “determined to abolish the law of Gracchus utterly and for that end was about to inaugurate armed strife and bloodshed.” Soon, the already hostile mob turned very hostile and men started shouting, “Kill the tyrant!” But Aemilianus stood his ground and said, “Very naturally those who feel hostile towards our country wish to make away with me first; for it is not possible for Rome to fall while Scipio stands, nor for Scipio to live when Rome has fallen.” But though he all but dared the mob to attack, they did not, and Aemilianus’s friends escorted him home after the meeting had adjourned.47
After his friends saw him safely home, Aemilianus told them that he planned to spend the evening working on a major speech that he would deliver the following day. But the next morning Aemilianus failed to emerge from his house. Concerned friends soon found his lifeless body in his bed. Only fifty-six years old and still in the prime of his political life, Scipio Aemilianus was dead.48
Given the atmosphere that surrounded his sudden death it would have been impossible not to suspect foul play, and over the years the list of suspects has included the entire Gracchi family: Gaius, his sister Sempronia, and their mother Cornelia Africana. All three had good reason to now consider their erstwhile kin an enemy. But also suspected were the two other land commissioners Flaccus and Carbo—both of whom had clashed with Aemilianus in the past. But for whatever reason, the Senate did not care to pry too deeply into the affair: “Great man though [Aemilianus] was, no inquest was held concerning the manner of his death.” It may well be that Aemilianus’s death was natural and that the timing of his demise mere coincidence. We will never know.49
THE STORIED AND controversial career of Publius Scipio Aemilianus created a template for future generations of Romans to emulate. He embodied a new spirit of what it meant to be Roman. He embraced Greek philosophy and was comfortable in luxurious surroundings. This new breed of Roman nobiles detested old scolds like Cato the Elder, and they saw no reason to reject good wine and elegant conversation. As the years progressed, the worldview of the Scipione circle would take over the upper classes, who were soon sending their sons to be educated in Athens as a matter of course. Aemilianus even introduced the habit of shaving one’s face daily, which became standard custom of the Roman aristocracy for the next three hundred years.50
On the political front, Aemilianus figured out how to use the Assembly to bypass inconvenient hurdles. He had held two consulships in his career, both secured after special dispensation from an Assembly. As consul, he fought two great wars, both assigned by a special vote of the Assembly rather than by traditional drawing of lots. It was a powerful example that would be used by all future dynasts of the Late Republic. The Assembly was incredibly powerful—the people’s unified voice could override everything. A man who controlled the Assembly could do anything he wanted.
Aemilianus also set a dangerous example when he used his extensive client network to raise a personal legion. In an age wracked by fights over conscription, Aemilianus had no trouble raising men to go conquer Numantia—he was able to call in favors and obligations from across the Mediterranean that raised fully sixty thousand troops. Aemilianus was living proof of what a charismatic and well-connected general could do. Marius, Sulla, and Caesar all followed Aemilianus’s basic principles of operations: raise a personal army and then use the Assembly to legislate your opponents into oblivion.
But though his career pointed to the future Aemilianus himself departed this world as an anachronism. The future would not be defined by noble princes who ruled the world by day and debated Greek philosophy at night. Instead it would be driven by a harder set of men. Publicani merchants steering the empire toward their own profits. Poor farmers squeezed off their land. Urban artisans dealing with recurring grain shortages. Italian Allies frustrated with their lack of civil rights. Slaves by the thousands constantly on the verge of revolt. The next generation would be defined by men who would attempt to harness these forces to control the Republic. But as Aemilianus himself noted, “Those who make themselves up for political competition or the race for glory, as actors do for the stage, must necessarily regret their action, since they must either serve those whom they think they should rule or offend those whom they wish to please.”51