[392] Polyb. vi. 19.
[393] There was already such a maximum according to Polybius (vi. 19). What it precisely was, is uncertain, as the passage is corrupt. According to Lipsius's reading, it was twenty years, according to Casaubon's, sixteen under ordinary conditions, twenty in emergencies. The knights were required to serve ten campaigns. See Marquardt Staatsverw. ii. p. 381. The nature of the reduction proposed by Gracchus is unknown.
[394] Lex Acilia ll. 23 and 74.
[395] Cic. de Fin. ii. 16. 54.
[396] No mention is made of the appeal in five cases in which criminal commissions had been established by the senate. The dates of these commissions are B.C. 331 (Liv. viii. 18; Val. Max. ii. 5. 3), 314 (Liv. ix. 26), 186 (Liv. xxxix. 8-19), 184 (Liv. xxxix. 41) and 180 (Liv. xl. 37).
[397] Vellei. ii. 2 (Tiberius Gracchus) pollicitus toti Italiae civitatem.
[398] Cicero is perhaps stating the result, rather than the intention, of the Gracchan legislation when he says (de Rep. iii. 29. 41) Ti. Gracchus perseveravit in civibus, sociorum nominisque Latini jura neglexit ac foedera. No point in the Gracchan agrarian law is more remarkable than its strict, perhaps inequitable, legality. That its author consciously violated treaty relations is improbable.
[399] App. Bell. Civ. i. 14.
[400] For the qualifications at this period see Mommsen Staatsr. i. p. 505.
[401] Dio Cass. frg. 88 [Greek: epecheiraese kai es to epion etos meta tou adelphou daemarchaesai kai ton pentheron hypaton apodeixai].