SCANTĪNĬA, proposed by a tribune; the date and contents are not
known, but its object was to suppress unnatural crimes. It existed
in the time of Cicero.
SCRĪBŌNĬA. The date and whole import of this lex are not known; but
it enacted that a right to servitutes should not be acquired by
usucapion.
SCRĪBŌNIA VĬĀRIA or DE VIIS MUNIENDIS, B.C. 51.
SEMPRŌNĬAE, the name of various laws proposed by Tiberius and Caius
Sempronius Gracchus.
AGRARIA. In B.C. 133 the tribune Tib. Gracchus revived the Agrarian
law of Licinius [LEGES LICINIAE]: he proposed that no one should
possess more than 500 jugera of the public land, and that the
surplus land should be divided among the poor citizens, who were
not to have the power of alienating it: he also proposed, as a
compensation to the possessors deprived of the land on which they
had frequently made improvements, that the former possessors should
have the full ownership of 500 jugera, and each of their sons, if
they had any, half that quantity: finally, that three commissioners
(_triumviri_) should be appointed every year to carry the law into
effect. This law naturally met with the greatest opposition, but
it was eventually passed in the year in which it was proposed, and
Tib. Gracchus, C. Gracchus, and Appius Claudius were the three
commissioners appointed under it. It was, however, never carried
fully into effect, in consequence of the murder of Tib. Gracchus.
Owing to the difficulties which were experienced in carrying his
brother’s agrarian law into effect, it was again brought forward by
C. Gracchus, B.C. 123.
DE CAPITE CIVIUM ROMANORUM, proposed by C. Gracchus B.C. 123,
enacted that the people only should decide respecting the caput or
civil condition of a citizen. This law continued in force till the
latest times of the republic.
FRUMENTARIA, proposed by C. Gracchus B.C. 123, enacted that corn
should be sold by the state to the people once a month at the price
of 6⅓ asses for each modius, which was equal to 1 gallon and nearly
8 pints English. This was only a trifle more than half the market
price.