ALLU´VIO
ALLU´VIO is thus defined by Gaius
(
Inst. 2.701): “Alluvium is an addition of soil to land
by a river, so gradual that it is impossible to estimate how much is
added in a short period, or, as it is commonly expressed, the charge is
so gradual as to be imperceptible. But a piece of your land swept away
by a river and carried down to mine continues your property.”
There is the same definition by Gaius in his
res
cottidianae (
Dig. 41,
1,
7), with this addition:
“If the piece of land thus suddenly swept away should adhere for a
considerable time to my land, and the trees on it should fix their roots
in my soil, it thereupon becomes my property.” Alluvio was
considered by the Roman jurists as a mode of acquiring property in a thing,
which belongs to the
jus gentium or
naturale; it was a particular kind of title by
accessio. A man might protect his land
against loss from the action of a river by securing the banks of his land
(
Dig. 43,
15,
de ripa munienda), provided he did not injure the
navigation.
An island that was formed in the middle of a river was the common property of
the owners on both banks of the river; if it was not in the middle of the
stream, it belonged to the proprietors of the nearer bank (Gaius, 2.72;
Dig. 41,
1,
7). By a river is meant a public river (
flumen publicum). According to a constitution of the
Emperor Antoninus Pius, there was no
jus alluvionis
in the case of
agri limitati, the reason being
that a certain quantity (
certus cuique modus）
was assigned by the form of the
centuriae
(
Dig. 41,
1,
16; comp.
Aggenus urbicus in Frontin.
Comment. de Alluvione, pars prior, ed.
Goes; and
Ager). Cicero (
Cic. de Orat. 1.38) enumerates the
jura alluvionum and
circumluvionum as matters included under the head of
causae centumvirales (Hermannseder,
die
Alluvien, München, 1856).
[
G.L] [
E.A.W]
