For one thing, as I've adumbrated, the ager publicus tended to wind up not in the government's hands, but in the hands of the conquering generals and friends of the conquering generals.
The Common Reader Volume 1 26 Essays on Jane Austen, George Eliot, Conrad, Montaigne and Others
But their merit consists in the fact that they do not adumbrate, or initiate, or anticipate anything; they exist, perfect, complete, entire in themselves.