Licinius [key], Roman plebeian gens, of which several men were noteworthy. Caius Licinius Calvus Stolo, fl. 375 b.c., was tribune of the people with Lucius Sextius. Roman historians attributed to him a number of laws, but most of these were probably made at later dates. These laws, the Licinian Rogations, provided a strict limitation on the amount of public land that one person might hold and on the number of livestock that one could graze on the public land. They included also a strict regulation of the collection of debts, and, most significant politically, they ordained that one consul must be a plebeian. It is said that Licinius Stolo was later fined for violating his own law on the possession of public land. Caius Licinius Macer, d. 66 b.c., orator and historian, committed suicide after his conviction by Cicero under the law against bribery and extortion. His son, Caius Licinius Macer Calvus, 82 b.c.–c.47 b.c., poet and orator, was considered the peer of Catullus by the ancients. Only short fragments of his works remain. See also Crassus.
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