The basis of the latifundia notably in Magna Graecia (the south of Italy including Sicilia) and Hispania, was the ager publicus (state-owned land) that was confiscated from conquered people beginning in the 3rd century BC.
[citation needed] Later, the practice of establishing agricultural coloniae, especially from the early 1st century BC, as a way to reward Roman army veterans created smaller landholdings, which would then be acquired by large landowners in times of economic distress.
[6] The latifundia quickly started economic consolidation as larger estates achieved greater economies of scale and productivity, and senator owners did not pay land taxes.
[citation needed] The latifundia distressed Pliny the Elder (died AD 79) as he travelled, seeing only slaves working the land, not the sturdy Roman farmers who had been the backbone of the Republic's army.
[citation needed] In the Iberian peninsula, the possessions of the Church did not pass to private ownership until the ecclesiastical confiscations of Mendizábal (Spanish: desamortización), the secularization of church-owned latifundia, which proceeded in pulses through the 19th century.
[citation needed] Big areas of Andalusia are still populated by an underclass of jornaleros, landless peasants who are hired by the latifundists as "day workers" for specific seasonal campaigns.