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The Writings of the Roman Land Surveyors: Technical and Legal Aspects

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The Writings of the Roman Land Surveyors: Technical and Legal Aspects THE WRITINGS OF THE ROMAN LAND SURVEYORS: TECHNICAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS A thesis submitted to the University of London for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Mauro De Nardis University College London 1994 BIBL LONDON UNIV Abstract The basic object of study of this dissertation is those texts conventionally known as 'the writings of the Roman land surveyors'. It deals in particular with the nature of the works of a body of authors (Frontinus and his later commentator, 'first' and 'second' Hyginus, Siculus Flaccus and Urbicus) which have come down to us, within the aforesaid collection of writings characterized by a diversified technical framework, through a peculiar manuscript tradition. Their treatises are of a special importance because they do not simply illustrate various principles and aspects of the technique of land measurement connected with areas of territory which have been parcelled and allocated. These authors, in fact, also decnbe those different kinds of markers which typify the boundary system used to enclose private/public areas or parcels of land. Such descriptions are connected by them with a discussion about different types of disputes which may arise either about the boundary line/strip or an area of land. The aim of the research is double. On the one hand, it seeks to ascertain more precisely the interrelation between the writings (or part of the writings) of the above mentioned authors: what was the extent and character of the influence each treatise may have exerted on the other by means of the technical terminology and systematization of the subject (along with any development of the land surveying technique) they followed. The first part of this study is, therefore, devoted to a close analysis of the way their works have been transmitted and all the most relevant passages which may lead not only to a better understanding of the nature of such works, but also to a more reliable chronology. On the other hand, this investigation is aimed to ascertain what was the actual province of the Agnmensores in the procedure for settling private and public law cases concerning land disputes in Imperial Rome. By commenting on all the most relevant epigraphical and documentary records dealing with this subject, along with those collections of laws concerning the 'action for regulating boundaries', it is possible to maintain not only that, according to the Roman law in force, the Agrimensores never held any office of arbitrators or judges to settle such disputes, but also that the jurists' and the Agnmensores' way of indicating the object of disputes about 'boundary' and 'site' was different, since their technical needs were different. 2 LIST OF CONTENTS Introduction: p. 4 • Chapter 1: Fontinus' book on land surveying p.10 • Chapter 2: The rellquiae of Frontinus' book on surveying p. 38 • Chapter 3: Urbicus' book on land disputes p. 75 • Chapter 4: Land disputes of the agrimensores, actio finium regundorum and the epigraphical-documentary evidence p. 131 • Chapter 5: Arbitral and surveying procedure in boundary disputes between cities and commonwealths p. 234 • Chapter 6: Conclusions p. 275 • BIBLIOGRAPHY p. 282 3 Introduction A study of the so-called 'writings of the Roman land surveyors', like any other analysis of a particular aspect of ancient society, unavoidably implies a reconsideration of earlier interpretations. This is particularly the case with an investigation on this subject. Much of the ground, in fact, is covered by conventional assumptions and terminology which have become dominant through the suggestions of some modern scholars who will be mentioned in the course of this work. First of all, my research does not pretend to be a completely original interpretation of the problems which will be dealt with here, or a key to all the difficulties I have come across. It is not, in fact, a study which centres around the development of Roman centuriation1 . Therefore, it is not based on the results of archaeological surveys (centuriation systems, boundary markers and so on) and investigations by aerial photography of the areas where the remains of Roman land surveying are still visible 2. Nor is it a vrk in which the study of the manuscript tradition of the 'writings of the Roman land surveyors' plays a central role. This does not mean that I do not recognise the value of the archaeological evidence, thanks to which the study of centuriation and other aspects of the legacy of the Agrimensores is constantly making further progress. Nor, on the other hand, does this mean that our understanding of the 'writings of the Roman land surveyors' has not been amplified after Lachmann's, Thulin's and other modem scholars' philological studies concerning the text of these technical manuals. The truth is that these aspects are now so complex that they need to be discussed in separate works. The starting point and guiding line of any approach to the subject is, in my view, still represented by Brugi's theory about the basic perspective characterizing the composition of the 'writings of the Roman land surveyors'. Almost a century ago, in his book entitled Le dottrine qiuridiche 1 On these aspects see, in general, E. Gabba, 'Per un' interpretazione storica della centuriazione romana', Athenaeum 63, (1985), pp. 265-284. 2 For the remains of areas of Roman centunation see, in general, G. Chouquer, M. Clavel- Lévéque, F. Favory, 'Cadastres, occupation du sol et paysages agraires antiques', Annales (ESC) 37, (1982), pp.847-882; see also F. Castagnoli, Le ncerche sui resti della centunazione, Rome, 1958, and E. Gabba, 'Sul sistemi catastali romani in Italia', Athenaeum 67, (1989), pp. 567-570. 4 depli Agrimensori Romani comparate a ciuelle del Diciesto, Verona-Padua 1897 (repr. Rome of 1968), Brugi set out to demonstrate that different systems of surveying land, in Rome, did not necessarily correspond to different legal conditions. My first aim is to update by new arguments Brugi's proposition: namely, that the Roman Agrimensores' peculiar concern was not to write about the relationship between the juridical condition of land ownership and the Roman system of surveying land, allocated to private individuals or to municipalities. This interpretation has usually been coupled with the misleading assumption that Roman surveyors took part, as a permanent body of arbitrator-judges (or 'advocates'), in the proceedings to settle disputes between two citizens or two towns (or a private individual and a municipality), concerning boundaries or the ownership of an area of territory. In fact, in Chapter 4 we shall see that a mensor is not an arbiter or judge by virtue of being a mensor, but he may be: the two are distinct, though one person may in some moments be both. Consequently, new research on this subject, whose questionable aspects are more numerous than the safe ones, has to start from careful consideration of the secure nature of the problems. It is important to have, first, a clear picture of what, in this matter, have to be regarded as well based conclusions and what are mere traditional opinions or philological assumptions; and on the other hand, of what is the nature and the importance of the crucial points still at issue. For instance, the earliest extant manuscript of the Agrimensores (the Arcerianus, the two halves of whith - B, of the late fifth and A, of the early sixth century - are in reality two distinct manuscripts), has long been considered to be the best compilation by far. Moreover, it has been suggested not only that an original nucleus of the Corpus Agrimensorum was composed in an area of Gothic-Byzantine culture (Ravenna), but also that all the classes of the extant manuscripts are descendants of this common arthetype, namely a compilation only some fifty years earlier than the earliest manuscript. Very recently Toneatto has doubted the possibility that all manuscripts transmitting such technical manuals may have had just one common archetype (or compilation). He is of the opinion that each compilation sprang from several different 'models'. In fact, the two halves of the Arcerianus are not complementary or springing from the same 5 compilation: they were, originally, two separate manuscripts containing only in some cases similar treatises3. This means that Lachmann's and Thulin's editions of the 'writings of the Roman land surveyors' are the result of their own philological choices which, although brilliant, do not necessarily mirror the actual disposition these writings might have had. In other words, it is not certain that we may be able to make a plain and undisputed restoration of the original framework of these writings. Consequently, we must be very careful in drawing technical, juridical and historical information from the text of authors who belong to different periods. Each work and each author, within this collection of manuals, has their own character and history. Any hypothesis about these authors and the characteristics and framework of their writings has to start from ascertaining the relative chronology (when it is possible) of their works, the relationship (if any) each manual may have had with the other manuals of the collection, the way single authors (or parts of their work) have been used and, possibly, manipulated in the course of the time. Without such preliminary investigation it is not worth engaging in any kind of discussion, or coming to any reasonable conclusion about what system of technical terminology each author followed; what, in general, may have been the development of the theoretical system of technical terminology connected with the science of surveying when two or more manuals are examined and compared. But, despite the complexity of the problems posed by the study of this subject, we do not have to assume a negative and totally discouraged attitude.
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