The condition of debtors was lamentable. During the long war with Veii in particular (406-396) numerous plebeians became involved in debt. Still worse in its consequences than the patrician land policy was the burning of Rome by the Gauls in 388. Plebeian indebtedness then increased as never before.
A distinguished patrician, Marcus Manlius, is said to have become the champion of the people and to have offered his lands for sale in order to help the debtors. He was prosecuted, according to tradition, by two plebeian tribunes on the charge of seeking royal power, and was condemned to death.
Concession of Pay for Military Service. — The senate passed, however, one important measure of relief. The principle of the Servian organization, that each soldier should equip himself and, so far as he could not live on booty, also support himself, was impracticable in wars carried on at some distance from Rome and for a long time. As a consequence each district (tribus) was at an early period required to furnish a certain sum of money (tributum) and out of this to pay the individual soldiers what they needed for support. At the end of the campaign the state reimbursed each district for its outlay, if it was in a position to do so. In this manner the lower Servian classes obtained their means of subsistence in war to some extent at the expense of the higher classes. Nevertheless, the war tax became a burden to the lower classes, when it was levied repeatedly, perhaps at an unseasonable time, and was not repaid for a considerable period. When during the Veientine war it became necessary to keep the soldiers under arms both winter and summer, the senate, in 406, decided to charge the maintenance of the soldiers to the state treasury, that is, to the revenue from the duties and the public domain. This arrangement tended to decrease the burdens of the lower classes and to increase those of the higher.
