Why did so many farmers sink into debt or lose their land in the latter years of the Roman republic?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

The problem of indebtedness of the Roman peasants not a new one in the Late Republic. Their worse problem in this period was loss of land.

The abuse of defaulting debtors by rich creditors who imprisoned them, tortured them and sometimes sold then as slaves, was what led to the first plebeian rebellion in 495 BC, in the early days of the Republic. Prior to the spread of slave labour, the way for rich landlords to gain labour services was debt bondage/slavery. Debt bondage ended when peasant labour provision was replaced by slave labour. Indebtedness continued due to high interest rates and impoverishment of the peasants.

Loss of land was a big problem from after the Second Punic War (218 BC-201 BC) onwards. Many small farms were ravaged during Hannibal's invasion of Italy and many more were neglected due to prolonged military service. The owners of large landed estates took advantage of this to buy land on the cheap. They were also advantaged by the abundant supply of slave labour created by the war (slaves were war captives). The majority of slaves were bought by rich landlords and were employed in the fields of their expanding estates. This trend continued and Rome was flooded by dispossessed peasants who migrated there to eke out a living, swelling the masses of the poor.