Lex agraria (111 BC)

The lex agraria of 111 BC is an epigraphically-attested Roman law on the distribution and holding of public land (ager publicus). It dealt with the confirmation of private title to formerly public lands distributed by the Gracchan land commission in Italy, public lands given in exchange for other lands given up by allies, the imposition of a rent or property tax (vectigal) on such lands, and the future privatisation or use of public lands. It also had provisions relating to the letting out of Roman lands in the provinces of Africa (especially with regard to transition provisions related to an abortive colonisation programme near Carthage) and Greece.

There is substantial disagreement about where the epigraphically-attested lex agraria should fit in the Appianic literary narrative of Roman land reform and whether the law should be equated with the lex Thoria described in Appian and Cicero. A large portion of the law is preserved on fragments of a bronze plate, along with a separate law on the reverse side. This plate was discovered during the Renaissance and the fragments which survive are now stored in various museums. There have been multiple modern transcriptions of the bronze fragments, including one in the mid-19th century by Theodor Mommsen and two transcriptions in the 1990s by Andrew Lintott and Michael Crawford.