[81]
But as our revenues derived from the territory of
Campania are of such a nature that they are always
at home, and that they are protected by the bulwark of all our Italian towns, so they are
neither hostile to us in time of war, nor variable in their productiveness, nor unfortunate
from any accidents of climate or soil.
Our ancestors were so far from diminishing what they had taken from the Campanians, that
they even bought additional lands to be added to it, from those from whom they could not
reasonably take it without purchase. For which reason, neither the two Gracchi, who thought a
great deal of what was advantageous for the Roman people, nor Lucius Sulla, who gave away
everything without the slightest scruple to any one he pleased, ever ventured to touch the
Campanian territory. Rullus was the first man to venture to remove the republic from that
property, of which neither the liberality of the Gracchi nor the uncontrolled power of Sulla
had deprived it.
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