Publius Servilius Rullus

Publius Servilius Rullus was plebeian tribune of the Roman Republic in 63 BC. He proposed an agrarian law aimed at redistributing land for the landless poor in Rome to farm. We know about this through the speeches delivered by Marcus Tullius Cicero against this bill. Cicero delivered four speeches. Three are extant. The beginning of the first speech is missing. The fourth speech is lost. We do not have any other sources except for passing references by Plutarch and Suetonius.

The bill provided for the election of a ten-man commission (decimviri) which would have authority for five years. Its task was to distribute land to 5,000 colonists in lots of ten jugera in the ager Campanus and in lots of twelve jugera in the nearby campus Stellaris (both areas were in Campania, north of Naples). Further plots of land were intended and land was to be bought for this. To raise funds for this, the decemviri were empowered to sell public land whose sale had been recommended by senatus consulta (written advice by the senate) since 81 BC, but had not been carried out. It was also empowered to sell domains outside Italy which had become public property in 88 BC or later. The decimviri were also authorised to tax public land outside Italy, to use the Vectigalia from 63 BC and the gold and silver from war booty not paid into the treasury or spent on monuments. Military commanders gave some on their booty to the state treasury and spent some of it to build temples and public facilities or to erect statues. Pompey was exempted from this. He was commanding the Roman troops in the last phase of the Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BC) against Pontus and Armenia (in present-day eastern Turkey). Because of his absence from Rome he was not eligible to be a candidate for the election of the decemviri.

Cicero portrayed Publius Servilius Rullus as an insignificant figure and alleged that he was a front for unsavoury men he described as the real architects of the bill, as 'machinators' and as the men who had the real power and were to be feared more than Rullus. He claimed that they hoped to become decemviri. He did not name these men, but dropped hints which made them identifiable. He said that among those men who were after joining the commission there would be "some of them to whom nothing appears sufficient to possess, some to whom nothing seems sufficient to squander." The first was a reference to the popular image of Marcus Licinius Crassus and the second one referred to the popular image of Julius Caesar. The speeches of Cicero need to be understood in terms of the frictions between two political factions, the populares (in favour of the people) and the optimates (the good men). The former favoured the plebeians (the commoners), wanted to address the problems of the urban poor and promoted reforms which would help them, particularly the redistribution of land for the landless poor to farm and the problem of indebtedness. The latter was a conservative faction which favoured the patricians (the aristocracy). It opposed the mentioned reforms. It also wanted to limit the power of the plebeian tribunes and the Plebeian Council (the assembly of the plebeians) and strengthen the power of the senate, which represented the patricians. At that time Crassus and Caesar were leading figures of the populares. Cicero was a leading figure of the optimates and as such he was opposed to the bill.

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