(1) No one shall hold more than five hundred iugera of the public land, excepting that in case the holder has sons he may occupy an additional two hundred and fifty iugera for each of two sons.[2245]
(2) The occupier shall receive compensation for improvements on the lands which the law compels him to surrender.[2246]
(3) The five hundred to one thousand iugera retained by the occupier shall be granted to him by the state in perpetuity and free from all dues.[2247]
(4) The lands thus accruing to the state shall be divided among the needy[2248] in lots, the maximal size of which seems to have been set at thirty iugera,[2249] to be held not as private property but as permanent, heritable leaseholds inalienable and subject to a specified rent.[2250] The Latins and Italians are to be included among the beneficiaries of this provision.[2251]
(5) Certain specified parts of the public domain shall not be subject to assignment—the same parts which are afterward reserved from assignment by the agrarian law of 111:[2252]
a. Land granted by law or by a senatorial decree to a colony, a municipium, or a Latin town, with the exception of any tracts of such land which this law may expressly order to be sold, assigned, or restored.[2253] Public domain granted by a lex or a senatus consultum can be withdrawn by the same, but the modification of a treaty requires the consent of both parties.[2254]
b. The trientabula—portions of public land granted by the government for a quit rent to its creditors as security for any part of a loan.[2255]
c. The ager compascuus—public land on which a specified group of neighbors have a right to pasture free of charge ten large domestic animals—cattle, horses, mules, and asses—and a fixed number of small animals, unknown to us on account of a lacuna in the inscription but most probably fifty.[2256] As the unit was doubtless the individual, much of the land of this description must have remained undivided.[2257]
d. Public roads.[2258]