P. Servilius Rullus 80
vol. II A p.1808-1809
80) P. Servilius Rullus
The son of nr. 79 (Plin. n. h. VIII 210) and step-son of a Valgius who had acquired a large estate in the land of the Hirpini during Sulla’s proscriptions (Cic. leg. agr. I 14. II 69. III 3. 8. 13f.) is said to have squandered his own inheritance (ibid. I 2). He became tribune of the plebs for 691 = 63, and as soon as he entered office in the December of the preceding year he proposed an agrarian bill: the first one since the tribunate of M. Livius Drusus (Plin. loc. cit.). <30> He wanted to make the left over estates in Italy available for land redistribution, as well as gaining the means required to acquire more land in Italy by selling pieces of land in the provinces; he handed over the logistics of the whole matter to a commission of ten men. Stopping this bill became the first task for the new consul for 691 = 63, Cicero: he tackled it with four speeches, three of which are extant, though not in their entireties. <40> He was particularly derisive when speaking about the author of the bill, Rullus, especially in his larger speech before the people (II 11ff.); he brought up the usual suspicions that Rullus was hoping to play a large role in his commission (II 20-22), and wanted to prioritise the material wealth of his own supporters, and his step-father’s in particular (see above, as well as other sources like II 16f. 65. 84); and in terms of Rullus’s motivations, Cicero was glad to bring up something that Rullus had said to only the small elite group of the senate, complaining that the plebs urbana had become far too large (II 70). <50> The main point that he kept coming back to was the revelation that the commission and its unlimited powers may well be directed against Pompey (II 53): the entire law could not serve for social reform, nor was it intended to. Instead, it was all about politics (cf. Drumann GR2 III 141-150. Hardy Journal of Philology XXXII 228-260 and the article Leges Agrariae). <60> Rullus was used as a pilot by Caesar, who later presented effectively this same failed Lex Servilia agraria during his own consulship in 695 = 59, dressed up as the Lex Iulia agraria: the Lex Servilia, however, fell into obscurity alongside its author. <page break 1808/1809> Previous publishers have incorrectly claimed that Rullus is meant by Cic. domo 43 (cf. P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus nr. 93). It is unlikely that he was the general under Octavian who, despite having 1500 men in his cavalry, yielded to the much weaker M. Antonius at Hyria, not far from Sipontum, during the conflict between the triumvirs in 714 = 40 (Dio XLVIII 28. 1 with all three names, Appian. bell. civ. V 245 with only the gens): this will have been his son (as Drumann suggests), whom Rullus and his wife Valgia could have already had by the time Rullus became tribune. <10>
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