In course of time, this land, which was handed down from father to son, and frequently sold, began to be regarded by the occupants as their own property.

Also the land tax (TRIBUTUM), which was levied on all _ager privatus_, and which was especially hard upon the small plebeian land-owners, could not legally be levied upon the _ager occupatus_.

Thus the patricians who possessed, not owned, this land were naturally regarded as usurpers by the plebeians.
The first object of the AGRARIAN LAWS was to remedy this evil.
SPURIUS CASSIUS, an able man, now came forward (486 ?), proposing a law that the state take up these lands, divide them into small lots, and distribute them among the poor plebeians as homes (homesteads).

The law was carried, but in the troublesome times it cost Cassius his life, and was never enforced..