What effect did latifundias have on Rome small farmers?

Answer 1

As Rome pursued its destruction of Carthage, the farmers who made up the Roman army were away from their properties, so not productive. Although their farms were protected by law, the owners of large estates took over increasing parts of the common land in their absence. This common land was crucial to the small farmer - his plot of about a hectare could provide grain and fruit, but the common land was necessary to provide grazing for the small farmers' ploughing oxen and was a source of tree products which augmented the farms.

In addition the prisoners sold off during the wars became a source of labour for the large landowners, who were thus able to dispense with the labour of free men, and out-competed in sale of produce. The iatifundia prospered and expanded, while the free men lost farms and livelihoods, ending up seeking work in the cities.

This also had an effect on the army, as these farmers provided its backbone. When the Germanic invasions threatened Rome in the late Second Century BCE, this source of soldiers could not cope and it became necessary to recruit the non-propertied class who had been exempt from service on the basis that landowners would fight for their land, and the landless could not be trusted or be held responsible to fight for other people's land. So the non-propertied class became the backbone of the army, and their generals after the war were responsible to get them land from conquered territories.

This way, for example, when Carthage was finally destroyed and its people enslaved, the landless Roman soldiers on discharge were given land at Carthage, and they became the new small farmers around the Roman Empire as it spread west and east.

Answer 2

they don't have any problem