AGRIMETA´TIO
AGRIMETA´TIO In the origin of a community land has
been acquired either by occupying what is vacant, or by conquest from a
previous occupier. The community from time to time regulates how it shall be
held by its members, whether in common or by separate families or by
individuals, and what transfers from one to another shall be allowed or
protected or enforced (cf.
Cic. Off.
1.7, 21). For such purposes land has to be defined, definition
requires boundaries to be declared, and naturally brings with it measurement
and land surveying in general.
1. The Roman land-surveyors (whose writings will be here referred to by the
pages of Lachmann's edit.) make three great classes （
qualitates) of land: one
divisus et
adsignatus, another
mensura per
extremitatem comprehensus, a third
arcifinius qui nulla mensura continetur (p. 1), i. e. land divided
and marked out, land surrounded by a measured boundary, and land not
measured at all.
The word
arcifinius was derived by Varro from
arcere, and he has been followed by the
Roman surveyors and by (apparently) all modern writers, Varro understanding
hostes, others
vicinum, others
fines (pp. 6, 137,
284, 369; and Rudorff;
Grom. Inst. p. 251). This derivation
is certainly wrong, for it is not conformable to the laws of Latin
composition, and another derivation is almost demonstrably right. Proper
components of such a word are
arcus and
finis. A bow as seen in ancient figures was
composed of two horns joined by a straight piece, each horn having a double
curve, and the bow was thus a type of an irregularly curved or wavy line.
Now see Balbus's words (98):
Extremitatium genera sunt duo, unum quod
per rigorem observatur, alterum quod per flexus: rigor est quidquid
inter duo signa veluti in modum lineae rectum perspicitur: per flexus,
quidquid secundum locorum naturam curvatur, ut in agris arcifiniis solet
. . . Quidquid in agro mensorii operis causa ad finem rectum fuerit,
rigor appellatur . . . Flexuosa linen (distinguished from
straight and curved lines)
est multiformis, velut artorum
aut jugorum aut fluminum; in quorum similitudinem et arcifiniorum
agrorum extremitas finitur. See also pp. 12, 31, and the figure in
312 referring to p. 342.
Ager arcifinius is therefore land
“bow-bounded,” i. e. bounded with a natural wavy line, as
opposed to land bounded by the artificial straight lines of the surveyor.
2. If a conquered territory or part of it was to be assigned to Roman
citizens, as, for instance, in founding a colony, the land was divided and
marked off in plots according to a regular plan. The surveyor placed himself
facing due west, and drew one line due east and west, and another crossing
at right angles, i. e. due north and south. Along these lines were set out
two wide balks (
limites). The east and west
balk was called
decumanus; the north and south
balk was called
kardo. All balks parallel to the
decumanus were
prorsi
limites, all parallel to the
kardo
were
transversi, but were often all called
decumani and
kardines respectively, the two principals being distinguished as
decumanus maximus and
kardo maximus. The others were numbered from the centre
crossing-point, all the north and south balks in front of the
kardo maximus being
ultra
kardinem max., all behind
[p. 1.85]it being
citra kardinem max.; and all the east and west balks
being
dextrā decumanum max. if on the
surveyor's right of the
decumanus maximus, and
those being
sinistrā decumanum max. which
were on the surveyor's left of the same. The combination of these terms gave
a ready description of any balk or block of land. The half in front of the
surveyor, i. e. the western, was called also
pars
antica; the half behind, i. e. the eastern,
pars postica (pp. 27, 303). The halves are also spoken of as
ager dextratus, sinistratus, citratus, ultratus
(or
pars dextrata, &c.), being respectively,
according to the normal arrangement of the balks, the northern and southern,
the eastern and western halves; and the quarters being denoted by a
combination,
e.g. ager ultratus et dextratus for the
north-western quarter, &c. (pp. 247, 290
sqq.).
The measurement was by a ten-foot rod,
pertica
decempeda, either substantive (
pertica) or adjective (
decempeda）
being often used alone to denote it (e. g.
Prop.
4.1,
130; Hor.
Od. 2.15,
14). Twelve rods or 120
feet was an
actus (i. e. one ploughing length,
Plin. Nat. 18.9;
Col. 2.2,
27). A square
actus contained 14,400 square feet, and a
jugerum was an oblong rectangle, composed of two
square
actus, containing 28,800 square feet,
being 24 rods long by 12 rods broad. The amount originally assigned to each
citizen was 2
jugera (about equal to 1 1/4
acres), together forming a square plot called
heredium ( “
quod heredem sequeretur;
” comp. “hereditament” ). A hundred of these plots,
forming a square of 20
actus or 240 rods each
way, was a
centuria (Varr.
R. R.
1.10;
Grom. pp. 95, 153). The century was the normal unit of
division of the colony, as the
jugerum was the
normal unit of the
centuria. Between the
centuries ran the
limites, those forming the
principal divisions being broader than the others. The balk along the line
of the meridian was called
kardo, from being as it
were the hinge or axis on which the heavens revolved; that crossing it was
called
decumanus, dividing the realm of light
(south) from the realm of darkness (north). The word has been the subject of
many bad etymologies (Rudorff,
Grom. Inst. p. 343). But it is
certainly the ordinary adjective, meaning the balk “of the
tenth.” Each side of the century contained 10
heredia, and the balk bounding the century was therefore a
balk “of (i. e. adjoining) the tenth”
heredium. When kardo was taken for the name of
the north and south lines,
decumanus was
confined to the east and west balks, which would come at every tenth
heredium, measuring along a
kardo (Nissen,
Templum,
p. 12, gives a more artificial explanation). Every fifth balk, counting from
but not inclusive of the
decumanus or
kardo, was called
limes
quintarius: the others were called in Italy
subruncivi ( “slightly cleared” ), and were used as
occupation roads for the farmers to carry off their produce. The principal
balks were also called
actuarii,
“carriage roads” (
Dig. 8,
3,
1), and were usually public
roads of considerable breadth (
Grom. pp. 120, 175: compare
the metaphor in
Verg. A. 9.323). Thus in the
colonies founded by the Gracchi, by Sulla and by Augustus, the
decumanus max. was to be 40 feet broad, the
kardo max. 20 feet, the other
actuarii (i. e. the
quintarii) to be
12 feet, whilst the
subruncivi were to be 8 feet.
This last breadth was that required by the XII. Tables for a private road
(Fest.
s. v. viae: cp. Bruns, p. 299;
Dig. 8,
3,
18). What in Italy were called
subruncivi were in some parts of the world mere lines of division, and
hence called
linearii (
Grom. pp.
168, 169; cf. p. 212).
3. The centuries were marked by a stone at each corner. The law of the
Augustan colonies, which seems to have been regarded as a kind of model for
others, also prescribed that these corner stones should be of flint or
millstone or the like, polished, round, a foot in diameter and four feet in
length, of which 2 1/2 feet should be sunk in the ground (p. 194). Hyginus
recommends the following system of inscriptions. The stones on the chief
decuman and
kardo to be inscribed on the front; the
rest on the sides. Beginning with these two principal balks, each stone
along them was to be marked with the notes of the decuman and
kardo adjacent. Thus, at the corner where the
decumanus maximus was crossed by the second
kardo, the stone would be marked on the top with
D M or D I for
decumanus maximus, otherwise called
primus, and K II
for
kardo secundus, i.e. the next
kardo to the
kardo maximus. The
inscriptions were generally so put as to / occupy only three-quarters of the
surface. The first four centuries to be marked were those immediately
adjacent at each angle of the central crossing point. Each of these
centuries would
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have the
decumanus maximus on one
side and the
kardo maximus on an adjoining side, and
three corners would thus be on these principal balks. The fourth corner was
called the
angulus clusaris,
“closing corner;” it was diagonally opposite to the centre
crossing; and on this was inscribed the full technical description of the
century. Thus, the north-west corner of the north-west century was marked
with a stone inscribed D D I V K I, i.e.
dextra decumanum primum, ultra kardinem primum,
being the century on the surveyor's right hand and in front. The south-west
corner of the south-west century was marked S D I V K
I, i.e.
sinistra dec., &c.; the
south-east corner was marked S D I K K I,
i.e. sinistra dec. primum, kitra kardinem primum,
being the century behind the surveyor on his left. The north-east century
was marked D D I K K I. The next century east, and
on the right of the
decumanus maximus, would be
beyond the
kardo secundus; and its name would be on
the stone at the north-east corner, i. e. the corner furthest from the
principal crossing. These names of the centuries were put not on the tops
but on the sides of the stones, because they would often be of considerable
length, e. g. D D LXXXXVIII V K LXXV. (p. 173), i.
e. a remote century in the north-west region on the right of the 98th
decuman and beyond the 75th
kardo. The inscriptions
had to be written on the stone downwards (p. 195; see however p. 111). This
systematic marking of the centuries by the number of the adjacent decuman
and
kardo, the numbers all starting from the centre
crossing, enabled a surveyor on examining a series of these stones to say in
what region of the district he was, and by comparison with the heavens,
[p. 1.86]whether the
decumanus
and the
kardo had their normal directions
respectively of east and west and of north and south (p. 290). Sometimes
stones were put only on the main balks and oaken posts on the minor ones (p.
112). Augustus directed all the century marks to be of stone, and the marks
put to distinguish one man's allotment from another's to be oak (p. 172).
4. The earliest allotments were two
jugera
(
Liv. 4.47;
Grom. p. 153);
later we read of 2 1/2
jugera (
Liv. 6.161), 2 3/4 and 3 (ib. 8.11); of 37/12 (ib.
5.24), of 5 (ib. 39.55), of 6 (ib. 44), of 7 (ib. 5.30), which last was
often regarded as a standard amount (Val. M. 4.4, 11;
Plin. Nat. 18.18), though larger amounts
are also mentioned, e. g. 8 and 10 (
Liv. 29.55),
even in one case of 51 1/2
jugera (ib. 41.13);
and Hyginus (p. 199) speaks of one-third of a century (=66 2/3
jugera) as if it were not unusual. The quantity
assigned as one lot was not necessarily continuous: e. g. of the 66 2/3
jugera, 6 2/3 might be in one century, 15
in another, and 45 in another (p. 204). The quantity depended primarily on
the extent of the divisible land, and the number of the recipients; but the
rule of equal distribution was not always followed. In the assignments to
soldiers army rank was regarded, a common soldier receiving one lot, and
higher ranks 1 1/2 or 2 lots, and even in republican times at Frentinum 20
jugera were given to each foot-soldier, 40
to each horse-soldier. In the Latin colony of Bononia the amounts were
respectively 50 and 70
jugera (
Liv. 35.9;
37.57). At
Aquileia the foot-soldiers had 50
jugera, the
centurions 100, the cavalry 140 each (
Liv.
40.34). The quality of the land was also regarded, its goodness being
sometimes compensated by a reduction of the quantity (pp. 156, 159; cf.
Suet. Aug. 49).
1 In the Augustan rules (no doubt following older precedents) the
measurement and assignment of the land was to be carried “where the
bill-hook and plough had gone” (
qua falx et
arator ierit, pp. 112, 201), i. e. so far as it had been
cleared and ploughed (see Cicero's remarks,
Rull. 2.25.67).
Hyginus held that this did not necessarily confine it to land actually
cultivated, but that some woodland or pasture might usefully form part
though not the whole of an allotment (p. 203).
The straight lines of the Roman limitation were carried out regardless, so
far as possible, of natural obstructions. Hence a century would often
include part of a river, and thus water as well as land fall into an
allotment. This was indeed necessary where the total territory was small,
and convenience often compensated the person to whom it was assigned. But
with large rivers like the Po, spreading from winter torrents far beyond
their banks, it was found better to except from this distribution not only
the bed of the river, but a considerable margin along it also (pp. 51, 120,
157). In the same way the balks were sometimes included in the centuries, i.
e. half the balk in each adjacent century. Sometimes where the balks were
broad, these (and often public highways also) were excepted from the
distribution (pp. 120, 158). But, whether excepted or not, there was a right
of road along them either for the public, or at least for the neighbours. In
some cases, as the land distributed had been previously occupied by the
conquered people, the rigorous line of the balks would pass through a
farm-house (
villa), and the owner then put
gates and a porter to let the people through. But if he did not mind giving
up more land, he might apparently deflect the public right of way, provided
the circuitous road was not inconvenient (pp. 121, 158, 159).
Considerable respect in some ways was shown to the former proprietors and
their arrangements. Any sacred places, groves, temples, tombs, public
waterworks, public drains (
fossae), or drains
between neighbours, roads, &c., were allowed to remain subject to
the same rights and use as before (pp. 120, 157). The existing proprietors
sometimes, from their rank or influence or friendship (the case of Virgil is
known), were allowed to retain their own lands, or else, if a man's lands
were scattered, a larger continuous area was given him in one place to make
up for the separated parts which were taken for distribution (pp. 155, 117,
130). A whole town indeed might be locally within the boundaries of the
limitation, but be exempted and left in its former condition (p. 118; cf.
Cic. Fam. 13.4). Barren parts, woods,
&c., were often not assigned, but either reserved for subsequent
disposal or granted (
concessa) to the colony as
a whole or to individuals, frequently to the neighbouring proprietors, to be
held as common land for pasture (
ager
compascuus, pp. 196, 201). Such places would rarely or never
coincide exactly with the area of a century, and the remainder of that
century was an oddment (
subsecivum). Other oddments
were made at the extremity of the limitation, the ground not allowing of
complete rectangular centuries (pp. 7, 155). In the colony of Emerita, in
Lusitania, a very large district was surveyed and marked out, but not fully
assigned. A number of veterans were settled at the extreme border, and
others at the colony itself and near the river Anas. The intervening
district received two additions of colonists subsequently, but there was
land yet left, which was utilised apparently by such of the colonists as
chose. This land also came under the class of
subseciva (pp. 51, 201). But if land within the extreme bounds
(
fines) of the district was not wholly
divided by
limites--as, for instance, if it had
not been cultivated and was therefore unfit for assignment--it was called
abandoned and shut out (
relictus et extra clusus, p.
55) from the regularly assigned district. In such a case Hyginus recommended
that the bounds should be surveyed and fixed by a system of right angles,
and boundary stones be erected. In certain places stone altars should bear
on one side the name of the colony, on the other the name of the neighbours
abutting (
adfines); where the bounds made an
angle, the altars should be triangular. If the boundary was rock, marks and
(if possible) inscriptions should be put upon the rocks themselves in lieu
of stones (p. 198).
5. As a general principle, land was divided by balks in order to be marked
out to persons (
ad signatus) as their property; but
division
[p. 1.87]was one thing and assignment was another
(p. 54). After the survey was completed, sometimes it was found that there
was more land than was wanted for assignment, and that some of it, being
barren, was not suitable for assignment. On the other hand, the land might
prove not enough for all the intended assignees, and then occasionally other
land described, but not divided by balks, was assigned to additional
citizens outside of the regular limits (p. 160). And sometimes part of a
century, or even two or more complete centuries (
lati
fundi), were restored to their old proprietors on their
declaring the quantity of their former holdings (pp. 156, 160). Neither the
land assigned nor the land restored was subject to a ground rent (
vectigal). But such a rent was imposed on land which
was not assigned in private ownership, and was evidence of its remaining
public. Thus the oddments and the land, in excess of that required for the
number of colonists, were (if not left to chance) subjected to a rent
payable by the occupiers to the owner, i. e. either to the Roman State, or,
if the oddments had been granted out to the colony (
concessa), or restored to the borough, then to the colony or
borough chest (p. 117). The lands of the Vestal Virgins or of priests were
also subject to a ground-rent (p. 117). In other words, the lands not
assigned were usually let for a year, or five years (
lustrum), or a hundred years. The actual occupiers were often
the adjoining landowners, but they did not always hold directly from the
lord, but only as sub-lessees of a
manceps, the
state generally in this, as in other matters, availing itself of the agency
of a large contractor (
manceps), who would give
proper security both in person and specified estates (
praedes ac praedia) for the due payment of the ground-rent.
When the lease was for 100 years, the words buy and sell (
emptio, venditio) seem to have been thought by the surveyors
more appropriate than take and let (
conductio,
locatio), though Gaius gives the other as the better legal view
(3.145). See under
AGRARIAE
LEGES
6. The colonies in the early days of Rome were Roman garrisons and outposts
in a foreign, and, it might be, still hostile country (
Cic. Font. 3, § 5;
Agr.
2.27.73), garrisons to watch the boroughs, outposts to repel the enemy on
the border (
Grom. p. 135). In the days of Augustus and his
successors they were settlements of veterans in strangers' territories.
Alike in both cases they were isolated intrusions, and while they had
jurisdiction within their own bounds they had none outside of them. Nor was
their jurisdiction co-extensive with their bounds. Only that which was given
and marked out (
datum adsignatum) was subject
to their control. Such of the former owners as were allowed to retain their
own lands within the bounds of the colony retained as a rule their
allegiance to the neighbouring borough or other community to which they
belonged before; and the same was sometimes the case with any oddments (
subseciva) or vacant centuries (pp. 117, 163).
Occasionally the former boroughs were deprived of all jurisdiction over land
outside of the borough walls (p. 164). In the Augustan colonies some
specially deserving veterans had their estates (
fundi) exempted (
excepti) from all
duty to they colony, and deemed to be part of Roman soil. Other veterans had
larger estates granted than the terms of the foundation allowed. These
estates were therefore specially marked as
concessi (p. 197).
The whole ground assigned to a colony was called a rod (
pertica, p. 26), and was divided on one system and from one
central crossing. If the land originally given up to the colony proved
insufficient for the number of colonists, some adjoining territory was taken
and surveyed, but on a separate plan, and with its own
decumanus maximus and
kardo. Such an
adjunct to the colony was called a
praefectura,
probably as being under a praefect sent from the colony (p. 160). Sometimes
the land of one borough was seen from the first not to be enough for the
intended colonists, and the lands of several boroughs were taken and thrown
together to form one
pertica (p. 164). The case
of Mantuan lands being taken to make up what was wanted for the veterans
established at Cremona is well known from Virgil and his commentators
(
ad Ecl. 9.27;
Georg. 2.198).
7. The distribution of the plots among the individuals was determined by lot.
The individuals were grouped according to the number of allotments contained
in a century. If 20
jugera were allotted to
each veteran, groups of ten (
decuria) were
made; if the allotment (
sors or
accepta, i.e.
sors: cf.
Ov. Am. 2.9,
19;
Cic. Fam. 11.2. 0) was a third
of a century, the groups would contain three (
conternationes). Slips bearing the names of all the sharers
were put into the urn, and the first ten (or three) that came out of the urn
formed the first group, and that group took according as their respective
names came out. Then lots, inscribed with the exact description of ten (or
three) plots, were put into the urn, and the first that came out was for
group 1, the next for group 2, and so on. The description was thus--“
Sors prima: D D I et secundum et III. et IV. citra kardinem
illum,
” i. e. “First lot: on the right of the 1st decuman and 2nd,
and 3rd, &c., on the hither side of such and such a
kardo.” Sometimes the composition of a group was settled by private
agreement, those in the same group having presumably neighbouring plots (pp.
113, 200).
8. A chart (
pertica, typus, forma, centuriatio,
&c., p. 154) was made of the whole
pertica, showing its bounds and abuttals, all the balks, the
position and limits of the oddments, common pastures and woods; plots
assigned to individuals in fee (
data
adsignata); plots granted (
concessa),
e.g. as corporate property or under special circumstances; plots specially
exempted from the colonial jurisdiction (
excepta); plots given back to the ancient occupier (
reddita veteri possessori), which sometimes were of
large extent, and filled several centuries (hence specially registered
redditum suum lati fundi, p. 157); plots
given to an ancient occupier in exchange for his own (
reddita commutata pro suo); the district assigned to a river,
sometimes quaintly described as a veteran or ancient occupier (
datum adsignatum ut veterano, or
redditum
suum veteri possessori flumini Pisauro, tantum in quo alveus, p.
157). Initials were often used to denote these frequently occurring
categories: for instance, C V P for
concessa veteri possessori (p. 203). When part of an
allotment consisted of woodland adjoining, or mountain pasture at a
[p. 1.88]distance (
ultra quartum forte
vicinum, pp. 204, 226, 15), this was joined to it on the chart
by a wavy line (
commalleolari2
debet, p. 204 ; and see figs. 196, 197).
Besides the chart, there was a register of the allotments, grants,
declarations (
professiones) of the ancient
owners, &c., setting forth the local description of each century,
the names of the persons to whom it was assigned or restored, and the
quantity of acres to be held by each. The precise appropriation of the
century among those who drew it in common (
consortes) was not entered in the register, but left to be
commemorated by the sharers by erecting suitable boundary marks (pp. 211,
271, and cf. p. 162). The chart and register ought to be made on bronze and
in duplicate, and one chart erected in the centre of the colony, the other
kept in the imperial record office (
Caesaris
tabularium). These were the most authentic evidence in all
disputes about the boundaries, the quantity and title of the lands of the
colony or other assignment (pp. 154, 202). They were not always made with
the same particularity. One surveyor (Balbus?), in forming the plan and
register for assignments by Trajan in Pannonia, not only noted the quantity
of each allotment, but drew a line round it, and inscribed the length and
breadth, thus defining the extent and situation of the individual
properties, and of the oddments; others contented themselves with stating
the quantity assigned, only when the centuries were not full (p. 121). The
chart and register contained, besides the original assignment, any
subsequent assignments which might be made of the same measured district.
Thus some of Julius Caesar's colonists returned to military service; and
when they went back to their own lands, the plots of those who had died were
assigned to others. Hence, the register often contained, under the same
century, the names of the original holders, and of their successors, no note
apparently being made of the cause (p. 162). Subsequent assignments of
unallotted plots and grants of reserved oddments, &c., would appear
in the register; but changes in their holdings, made by the settlers
themselves, by purchase, or lease, or exchange, or occupation of vacant
parts, were not entered. New acquisitions being often made according to
mutual convenience, and without regard to the bounds set out in the survey,
the register ceased to be decisive of disputes between them or their
successors, and recourse had to be made to the private deeds (
cautiones) which might describe the quantities and
the marks (p. 131). In the case of a veteran dividing his allotment among
his sons, there appears to have been a practice of erecting boundary stones
in lines, having a common and definite relation to the boundary stone on the
principal balk. Such stones were called
comportionales.
9. The account given above relates to what was considered the normal survey
and arrangements. The
decumanus maximus running
east and west ; the
kardo maximus running north and
south ; the surveyor facing to the west, so that the west was
ultra kardinem and the north
dextra decumanum; the centuries rectangular and equilateral,
containing each 200
jugera, and each side being
20
actus long; the balks duly proportioned in
width to their importance as the main, secondary or smaller patent lines of
division, strictly parallel to the chief decuman or kardo, and marked by
significant boundary posts of proper character, height, and thickness, and
duly inscribed with their number and description--such was the standard of a
Roman surveyor for the distribution of land among Roman colonists. But in
almost all these points differences were found. Sometimes the decuman was
drawn, not due east and west, but in accordance with the visible quarter of
the rising of the sun on the foundation of the colony (p. 170); sometimes it
was made to run along a great road, as the
Via
Appia (p. 179); or in the direction of the greatest length of the
territory; or even, as in the neighbourhood of Capua, north and south, with
the kardo east and west (pp. 29, 168). Where a colony was close to the sea,
the balks were made parallel to the shore, and called
maritimi, and the cross balks parallel to the mountains, and
called
montani (p. 168).
The most perfect arrangement was for the centre of the limitation to be at
the centre of the town, and the decuman and kardo to pass out by gates at
each end of the four sides; but often this was not possible or convenient,
mountains or the municipium whose territory was now taken for distribution
being in the close neighbourhood, and then the centre crossing was put in
some suitable place outside (pp. 178
sq., 194). A
praefecture was usually divided on a system independent of that of the
pertica to which it belonged (pp. 160,
171). The Nolan district was, from the first, surveyed with two different
sets of balks, the one set adjoining the other, but meeting them somewhat
obliquely. The two sets of decumans were distinguished as
dextra and
dexterior, sinistra
and
sinisterior (p. 162). If a second colony was
established, with land adjoining a former one, it was (at least sometimes)
so arranged as to have its balks placed (without regard to the points of the
compass), not parallel, but at an angle to the old one (pp. 31, 170).
The century of 200
jugera was, at Beneventum,
arranged so as to have 25
actus along the
decumans, and 16 along the
kardines (p. 59); in
other parts the so-called century had only 50
jugera; at Cremona, 210 (p. 30); in other parts 240
jugera, viz. 24
actus
by 20; at Emerita, 400
jugera, the decumans
having 40
actus and the
kardines 20; in a praefecture at Turgalium, the figures were just
reversed (p. 171). The distances of the boundary stones or posts often
varied in different parts of the same district. If land which had once been
divided and assigned was a second time made the seat of a colony, or of a
new distribution of land, the old set of balks would be cut across by the
new set (p. 178), and the old boundary stones remaining were liable to be
confounded by a careless observer with the new ones. Some of the
distributions of the Gracchi and Sulla were thus superseded by later
arrangements (p. 165).
10. Another mode of dividing and assigning colonial land is expressly
contrasted with the above.
Ager divisus adsignatus
coloniarum habet condiciones duas, unam qua plerumque limitibus
continetur, alteram qua per proximos possessionum
[p. 1.89]rigores adsignatum est, sicut in Campania
Suessae Aruncae. If divided into plots of greater length than
breadth, the division was
per strigas; if of
greater breadth than length,
per scamna: length
was reckoned in the direction of north and south, breadth in that of east
and west. The terms are used also, in camp measurement, for oblong plots
[see
CASTRA]. The origin of the
terms is obscure:
striga is probably a strip
(from
stringere);
scamnum was a farmer's word for unbroken ground (Col. 2.2.25,
3.13.2).
Ager strigatus or
scamnatus seems then to be land divided into oblong plots,
the sides of which were not parallel to decumans and
kardines, but to the boundaries of the neighbouring occupiers
(Front.
l.c. is strangely mistranslated by Rudorff,
p. 290). According as the length of plot was north and south or east and
west, it was called
strigatus or
scamnatus. (Nipsus describes land divided into
centuries of 24
actus in length and 20 in
breadth as
ager scamnatus, p. 293, and possibly
all the oblong centuries named above should be called
scamna or
strigae.) This method
of division is expressly recommended by Hyginus (205
sqq.) for land in the provinces, subject to a tax, as distinguished
from the tax-free land of a colony. A difference of legal condition of the
land ought to be indicated by a difference of measurement; and the art of
the land-surveyor is capable of dealing with the varieties of the several
provinces. Hence he blames those who divided Pannonia
per
centurias; but, recognising the importance of an accurate
survey with measured plots, referable to definite lines made visible by
balks and marked by boundary stones, he recommends decumans and
kardines of the usual width, but dividing the land
into
strigae and
scamna, the
strigae to be twice as
long as broad, the
scamna to be twice as broad
as long (
dimidio longior sive latior).
11. In an account of the different districts of Italy from a surveyor's point
of view, which is found among the
Gromatici,
and was probably taken from official records (
libri
coloniarum), other modes of distribution of land are spoken
of. Thus in the account of Atina:
Ager pro parte in
laciniis et per strigas est adsignatus; of Aricia,
Ager
ejus in praecisuris est adsignatus (230); of Spoletum,
Ager in jugeribus et limitibus intercisivis est adsignatus ubi
cultura est; ceterum in soluto est relictum in montibus vel subsecivis,
quae reipublicae alii cesserunt, nam et multa loca hereditaria accepit
ejus populus (225).
Laciniae were
probably irregular patches of land;
praecisurae
pieces bounded by straight lines but not rectangular, and cut larger or
smaller according to the goodness of the land (cf. p. 211). The land of
Spoletum had, in its cultivated parts, been regularly mapped out in
centuries, but was allotted in portions of a certain number of acres divided
from each other, not by the regular balks, but by cross or intersecting
balks. The rest of the land had been left undivided (
in
soluto or
absoluto). In some
parts of Italy the land was registered as having been assigned
in nominibus, or more fully
in
nominibus villarum et possessorum (so at Volturnum, pp. 238,
239), i. e. the register did not contain a list of centuries with a
technical allotment of them to individuals, but a list of assigned estates
described by their natural boundaries, or the names of their former
possessors.
12. In this official account, the idea (though imperfectly carried out, at
least in the documents extant) was to give the origin and plan of the first
survey and subsequent changes, the persons to whom the assignments were made
(e.g.
militibus, veteranis, familiae Augusteae, militi
metyco), the direction of the decumans and
kardines, the character of the balks (
limitibus
Graccanis, or
triumviralibus, or
Augusteis, or
Gallicis, or
montanis, or
maritimis, or
intercisivis), the
existence or not, and sometimes the width, of a public right of way (e.g.
iter populo debetur ped. x. or
ped. cxx., or
iter populo non
debetur), the mode of marking the boundaries, whether by
artificial stones or posts (
termini lapidei, silicei,
molares, lignei, roborei, oleaginei; or again,
Tiburtini, of stone from Tibur, or
enchorii from the spot, or
Graccani (like those of
Gracchus),
Augustei, Tiberiani, Neroniani, &c.),
erected at various intervals. (e. g. 60 feet, 80, 100, 120, 150, 160,
&c., 600, 720, 840, 1020, 1200, 1440, 1500--all divisible either by
20 or 50, i. e. 2 or 5 rods), or by natural or at least ruder marks.
13. This latter class of marks is found indeed in regularly divided and
assigned land, especially in marking the boundaries of private properties,
after sales and inheritances have disturbed the original allocation, and the
technical limits have not been duly observed. But their principal use is
(with or without artificial boundary stones) to distinguish the territory of
one colony or borough from another, and the lands occupied by one man from
those occupied by another in a district which has not been divided and
assigned. Such lands were called
occupatorii (
“squatters' lands” ) as regards their legal character, but,
not having official surveyors' straight boundaries (cf.
Liv. 5.55
fin.), come under the general class of
ager arcifinius. Non mensuris actis quisque modum accepit, sed
quod aut excoluit aut in spem colendi occupavit (p. 138). These
occupiers sometimes made plans of their holdings (
possessionum suarum formas), but the plans were private, not
public, documents, and consequently did not bind their neighbours or others.
The bounds adopted by the occupiers, whether of their own motive or by
agreement with their neighbours, were of very various kinds (pp. 138, 361),
and different kinds were usual, some in one district, some in others.
Unaquaeque regio suam habet consuetudinem is a common
maxim of the surveyors (p. 349, cf. 139, 140, &c.).
The boundaries between the territories of adjoining colonies or towns were
usually taken from the natural features of the country. The ridges of the
mountains (
juga montium), watersheds (
divergia aquarum), and rivers (
flumina) or streams (
rivi) were
the principal; but the line of division was often marked in their absence,
or accentuated even when they were present, by boundary stones (
termini). But trenches (
fossae), springs (
fontes), public
roads (
vice), chapels (
sacella), and tombs (
sepulcra,
monumenta) were also not uncommonly made use of for this purpose
(p. 114). All these were also found as boundaries between occupiers. Roads
were not a sure indication of a boundary, for they often crossed an estate
instead of bordering it; and this was so whether they were properly public
highways made and kept up at the expense of the state, and under a special
commissioner
[p. 1.90]（
curator),
or only country roads maintained by the neighbouring occupiers under the
charge of the village wardens (
magistri
pagorum, p. 146). Chapels were often erected where three or more
estates adjoined (
in trifinio, in quadrifinio). They
had an altar for each estate, and an entrance on the side facing it. The
altars were at 15 feet from the temple (p. 303). The areas thus enclosed
were the sacred precincts, and were surrendered by the adjoining occupiers,
who, by this devotion of a definite area, were able to keep their crops from
being trampled by the people on the days of celebration of the
compitalia (p. 57).
Tombs, monuments, gravestones (
cippi) were found
in the interior of estates, especially where the land was not well adapted
for cultivation (p. 140), but the boundary or a road was the usual place for
burial (pp. 27, 140, 349).
14. But many other marks of boundaries were used between estates. Such are
smaller heights than mountains or hills. These, if not more than 30 feet
high, were called brows (
supercilia), and with
these it was the rule, in the absence of any special agreement, that the
whole of the slope belonged to the occupier of the higher ground as a
natural support to his land (pp. 42, 109, 128, 143). Or there might be for
some considerable distance a continuous bank (
ripa
decisa, p. 361), which would then be a physical embodiment of
the ideal straight boundary-line (pp. 108, 109, 151, 241), or a continuous
hollow (
cava, p. 281), or, by agreement,
sometimes an unploughed edge of land (
solidus
margo, pp. 129, 152). Trenches were sometimes of a military
character, and accompanied by mounds (
aggeres,
p. 370; Varr.
R. R. 1.14). Such mounds were sometimes without
trenches, and then in the Reatine district called
muri (Varr.
l.c.), or there might be
walls (
macheriae) of stone as near Tusculum, or of
brick as in Gaul, or of unbaked bricks as in the Sabine district, or of
earth and pebbles as near Tarentum and in Spain (Varr.
l.c.); or merely pebbles thrown up into a ridge (
congeriae, pp. 221, 150;
attinea, p. 139), or a series of pebble heaps called scorpions (
scorofiones, p. 142), or earth heaps (
grumi, p. 241). Varro speaks of the bounds of
estates being marked by wooden fences made of posts near each other, and
either intertwined with branches, or pierced so as to admit of two or three
horizontal poles, or by close-set trunks of trees; but these are not
mentioned by the surveyors, though posts of holm-oak, or olive, or juniper,
are mentioned as used for boundary stones (p. 138). Another class of
boundary marks consisted of quickset thorns (
vepres, p. 147:
viva saepes, Varr.
l.c.; Col. 11.3.3), often with trees standing in
them, like our own hedgerows. Trees are indeed one of the most frequently
mentioned boundaries, and in this case, probably from their standing ranged
at considerable intervals on the outskirts, like advanced guards or pickets,
were called
arbores antemissae. These were
distinguished from other trees on the estate either by being left to grow
untouched, or by being of a different kind, either planted for the purpose,
or left when others were cut down (pp. 41, 143). Pines, cypresses, ashes,
elms, poplars (cf.
Hor. Ep. 2.2,
173), elders, oleasters, quinces, almonds,
figs, date-palms, are all mentioned (pp. 143, 354, &c.). Foreign
trees were often chosen for this purpose. If trees were planted by common
consent, they were clipped or felled by each neighbour in common or in turn.
It was very usual, if they belonged to one neighbour only, to mark them by
scoring the bark on the side looking to the non-owner. If they were within
the five feet which was regarded according to law (i.e.
Lex Mamilia) as common to both neighbours, they were marked
on each side. A tree at a corner of the boundary was marked with a gamma, T,
to point to the new line; if at the meeting of several estates, with a cross
(
decus or
decussis, pp. 127, 140, 144). Sometimes the boundary could be
sufficiently inferred from the rows of vines or olives (cf. Cic.
Caecin. 8.22) of one neighbour meeting those of the
others at an angle, or from some other plain difference in the mode of
cultivation (pp. 129, 282).
Boundary stones of every kind were used, both by themselves and as assistants
to other marks. They were sometimes of the live rock shaped or marked for
the purpose (p. 302), sometimes of separate stones, sometimes of foreign
material, triangular, square, rounded, bevelled, polished, notched,
hollowed, numbered, worked in a variety of suggestive or symbolical
patterns, and placed either along the boundary itself or in the
neighbourhood, with indications where the boundary ran. Earthenware jars,
wells, and other enclosures
3 are frequently mentioned; and the better to preserve proof that a
stone was intended to mark a boundary, it was very usual to bury under the
stone things which were different from the components of the soil at the
place, and not easily perishable. Such were ashes, coal (cf. Aug.
Civ. D. 21.4), potsherds, broken glass, chalk, gypsum, or
coins (pp. 401
sqq.). Mounds of earth with such
enclosures were called
botontini (p. 308). The
practice seems to have originated in the rites of consecration. The
neighbours whose estates met at the place each put their stone on the
ground, anointed it, and crowned it with fillets and garlands; then in the
pit, dug to receive the foot of the stone, they made a sacrifice, and,
having set fire to the victim, dropped the blood into the pit and threw in
frankincense and corn (
fruges), honeycombs and
wine, and, having consumed them all, placed the stone on the glowing embers,
and rammed it tight with fragments of rock (p. 140). Wooden posts so used
were often from this called
pali sacrificales
(pp. 43, 208).
15. Both religion and law combined to give sanctity to boundary stones. The
rites of the annual festival of Terminus on the 23rd of February, are
described in
Ov. Fast. 2.639-684, and
closely resemble those just described from Sicculus Flaccus. The sacrifice
of an animal was not part of the rite according to Dionysius (
2.74) and Plutarch (
Qu.
Rom. 15), so that the custom probably varied in different parts (cf.
Hor.
Epod. 2.59;
Juv. 16.39). The
first institution of bounds is referred to Numa: the stones were to be
sacred to Juppiter Terminalis
[p. 1.91]（
Ζεὺς ὅριος), and any one destroying or moving them was to
be held accursed, with full allowance before God and man to any one to slay
them (Dionys.
l.c.). The Gromatic collection
contains (p. 250) an old prophetic utterance evidently of some Etruscan
priest. “Juppiter had claimed Etruria for himself, and bade them
measure the plains and mark the fields (
signari
agros). Knowing man's avarice and land-hunger, he willed that
all should be fixed by bounds. Now in that eighth, all but the last
age” (the eighth age would begin after 761 years from the beginning
of Etruria, Censorin. 17.6), “men would in guile violate the rules.
Whosoever shall move a bound to the increase of his own and decrease of
another's possession would be condemned by the gods. If a slave, he
would suffer from his master. If his master was a party to the
wickedness, his house would be rooted up, and his clan (
gens) perish. They who moved the stones would
get sickness, wounds, and weakness of limb. The land would be stirred
with tempest, whirlwind, and earthquake (
labes). The fruits would be hurt and dashed down with rain
and hail, would perish from the dog-days, would be killed by blight. And
many dissensions would arise among the people.”
The earliest law which we know of in which penalties are directed in matters
of this kind is the
LEX
MAMILIA (which see), the substance of which was passed by Julius
Caesar before the year 703 U.C. It imposed the
duty upon the occupier of restoring a boundary stone placed in any colony,
borough, or other district, which had fallen; prohibited any one from
building on or ploughing up the balks or decumans, or obstructing the
trenches under a penalty of 4000 sesterces for each transgression (
in res singulas), to be recovered by any of the
colonists or burghers who prosecuted. Moving or removing boundary stones
(
terminos). maliciously was subjected to a
penalty of 5000 sesterces for each stone, half to be given to the principal
agent in procuring his conviction, and half to the public chest (p. 263;
Dig. 47, 21, 3; cf.
Lex Urson. 104 in
Bruns, p. 121). Nerva directed any slave, who moved a stone to be capitally
punished, unless his master would pay the fine. And Hadrian (A.D. 119)
directed persons moving boundary stones, with the object of taking others'
land, if of a superior class (
splendidiores),
to be banished for a longer or shorter time, according as they were young or
old; their agents to be chastised and put to public works for two or three
years. Stealing such a stone ignorantly to be punished with flogging (Coll.
14.12;
Dig. 47, 21). Paulus adds that the banishment was
accompanied by a confiscation of one-third of the offender's property; and
that slaves offending in this respect of their own will were condemned to
the mines. Trees (
arbores terminales or
finales) were protected as well as the regular
termini (Paul.
Sent.
5.22.2). Stealing boundary stones and felling boundary trees were also
subjects for condemnation in a suit
finium
regundorum (
Inst. 4.17.6).
16. It will be seen that a great deal of the matter with which the
land-surveyors were concerned was conventional, and required only aptitude
in devising and describing suitable modes of demarcation of land, and
knowledge of what was in fact usually meant by certain marks. But scientific
knowledge was also a part of the craft, and the writings of the
Gromatici contain a variety of mathematical
problems. Two instruments are mentioned as in use by them: the
gnomon and the
groma.
The problems to be solved required two things: a determination of what we
now call the points of the compass, and a method of setting out on land a
right line and a right angle. The
gnomon was
employed for the first purpose, and was derived by the Greeks from the
Babylonians, according to Herodotus (
2.109), and
something of the kind, i. e. some kind of sundial, was known to the Hebrews
in the days of Isaiah (38.8). The
groma was
employed for the second purpose, and was probably got by the Romans from the
Etruscans along with the augurial discipline. Its precise shape is unknown:
it was not so elaborate as the
dioptra, nor
identical probably with the
chorobates of
Vitruvius (
8.5), else he would have used the name
groma or said so, but consisted of a
moveable instrument capable of standing steadily on the ground, and carrying
either two straight bars crossing one another at right angles, or a plate,
square or round, with marks in the periphery for the extremities of two
straight lines crossing one another at right angles, and for their
intersection. The verticality of the staff or stand was probably secured by
a plumb-line corresponding to a groove in the staff or otherwise applicable
to the stand. The horizontality of the cross-bars or plate was secured by
observations of plumb-lines hanging from the extremities, and trying whether
one covered the other in the line of sight (p. 32). The cross-bars or plate
were fixed on a pivot, so that they could be moved round on the staff. The
adjustment of the instrument was procured by shifting it about (
percutere gromam, p. 285) until it was balanced
(
perpensus). The direction of the straight
lines to be marked out on the land was given by bringing the end of one arm
in a line with a distant object, and by erecting marks along the line so
determined. This was
dictare rigorem,
“right line,” or
metas,
“poles.” A line at right angles was given by the direction of
the arm which crossed the first arm. The point on the ground where the lines
crossed was
interversura. Sighting the marks
was
comprehendere signa or metas; verifying this by
sighting in the opposite direction was
reprehendere
metas, &c. Two bars meeting or crossing one another at
right angles, probably mounted on a pole, formed an instrument called
tetrans (p. 186). Comp. Cantor, pp. 20-22, 72. The
instrument above described (analogous to a modern surveyor's cross) is often
in the
Gromatici called
ferramentum (
Grom. pp. 32, 191, 285), possibly
only in strictness applicable to the iron stand; by others
stella (
ἀστερίσκος, Heron. ap. Cantor, not. 45; comp.
Col. 3.13.13), which perhaps was strictly
applicable only to the upper part. But the old name
groma is found in the
Grom. pp. 170, 180, and
written
croma, p. 284; and in Hygin.
de
munit. Castr. § 12; Paul. Fest. p. 96; Non. p. 63.
(There seems to be no sufficient reasons for thinking that
groma had, as is often stated, any etymological
connexion with
γνώμων.)
[p. 1.92]Where the ground sloped, the rod held horizontally, as tested by
a plumb-line fastened to its end, served to give the measurement of the base
level. To do this was
cultellare (pp. 27, 33).
17. Two methods of finding the proper direction for the
decumanus maximus and
kardo maximus
are given by Hyginus (pp. 188 foll.). The first is also given by Vitruvius
(
1.6.6). A
gnomon or
sciotherum, probably an upright
pole, was erected on a plain, and a circle was described from that as a
centre, and with a radius not so great as the longest shadow thrown by the
pole. As the sun rose, the shadow gradually shortened, and, when its
extremity touched the circle, the place was marked. After noon the shadow
lengthened and again touched the circle. This point being marked also, a
straight line joining these points was in a due east and west direction, and
was taken as the principal decuman. A straight line drawn from the centre of
the circle to the middle of the first line was the
kardo
maximus, and at right angles to the decuman.
The other method proceeded by observing any three lengths of the shadow
quickly following one another, and thus could be practised in the morning,
without the necessity of waiting for the afternoon shadows. But it required
more geometrical knowledge. Both methods, as they presume the use of the
gnomon, are probably of Greek origin, though they are not to be found in any
Greek writer now extant (Cantor, pp. 69-72). As the gnomon was not publicly
set up at Rome till more than four centuries and a half after the foundation
of the city (
Plin. Nat. 7.212
sq.), it is probable that it was not known to the
Romans long before. The augurs following the Etruscan discipline
(
Grom. pp. 27, 166) divided the heavens and earth by the
indication given by the sunrise; and as they faced the west, so as to look
as the sun seemed to them to be looking, the first shadow cast by their own
body or rod would give the direction for the east and west line. By the aid
of the groma,
posita auspicaliter, they drew
the decuman, and then the kardo, at right angles (p. 170). But sunrise
varied at different times of the year and in different places; in Italy,
indeed, within a range of 65° (Nissen,
Templum, p. 164); and the proximity of mountains, concealing the
real horizon, made a further difference; so that as the latitude of the
place and the time of year, when the survey was inaugurated, varied, the
balks set out in one place differed considerably in their direction from the
balks in another--a fact which, whether theoretically defensible or not, was
looked at with dissatisfaction by the later surveyors, armed with Greek
astronomy and trigonometrical methods (pp. 31, 183).
18. The art of land-surveying, as we find it in the collection of gromatical
tracts and fragments, comprised, amongst other things, the elements of
geometry and practical instruction in the calculation of the contents of a
variety of superficial figures, and in the use of the groma. Like their
successors in modern times, they had to deal with such problems as how to
set out a straight line across a deep valley or a high mountain, to
calculate the breadth of a river which you could not readily cross, and to
make complete and accurate surveys of plots of land, however irregular their
boundaries (pp. 31-34; 192, 193; 285
sqq.; 354
sqq.). The methods appear to have been much the same
as are now practised by surveyors with the cross; and the ten-link
offset-staff is perhaps a fair representation of the ten-foot rod of the
Romans.
According to Cantor (p. 85), who has set forth the result of his own and
others' inquiries, there is no reason to doubt the truth of the assertions
of Varro and Hyginus (
Grom. pp. 27, 166), that the Romans
owed their system of dividing and marking out land to the Etruscans. So long
as the only process required was to set out balks at right angles to one
another, no need was felt of trigonometrical science. But when the contents
of areas of any given shape had to be calculated, and other like problems to
be solved, the Roman or Etruscan discipline was insufficient. This
knowledge, first developed in Egypt from the necessities induced by the
Nile's annual overflow, is found in an early form in a papyrus as old as
1700 B.C. The Greek school at Alexandria developed it, and in the extant
writings of Heron, who lived there about 100 B.C.,
we actually find most, though not quite all, of the methods for solving
mathematical problems taught by the Roman Gromatici (Cantor, pp. 78, 86).
The first Roman writer on geometry was Varro (cf. Ritschl,
Opusc. 3.359, 474), and it was in his lifetime that Julius
Caesar is said to have directed a survey of the whole Roman empire, which
was carried out by Augustus, who employed four Greeks and Balbus (cf.
Grom. 239, 402) to superintend it. But the story is from
a writer of the 5th or 6th century after Christ, and was unknown to the best
ancient authorities, and Balbus lived in Trajan's time. That something of
the kind was done or attempted is likely enough. Agrippa had a map of the
empire engraved on marble and put up in his sister's house; some survey was
needed for systematic revenue purposes; and it was Alexandria that furnished
Julius Caesar with the astronomical science necessary for his reform of the
calendar. About this time, and perhaps in this way, the methods of
Alexandrian trigonometry were brought fully into the course of Roman
gromatic (Cantor, pp. 83, 84; Ritschl,
Opusc. 3.743 ff.;
Riese,
Geogr. Lat. Min. pp. xi. xxiv.; Marquardt,
Staatsverf. ii. p. 200 ff.). The history of
land-surveying in the Middle Ages may be further followed in Cantor's work
(
Die römischen Agrimensoren, 1875).
[
H.J.R]
