Italians had no such protection. They could and did complain loudly. However, there were no votes to be obtained from Italians, so no aristocrat had anything to gain by taking their case. On the other hand, the aristocrat the Italians were complaining about would certainly take offence with anyone who listened to such complaints. Therefore anyone who took up the cause of Italians unfairly dispossessed of their lands would be making a powerful enemy of the aristocratic dispossessor and getting nothing in return. So the Italians had few defenders in Rome, and by the middle of the second century
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