[1299] necessitas locandorum praediorum plures annos ordinatura.
[1300] priore lustro. The lustrum or quinquennium was the common term of leases, and recognized in law books. Cf Digest XII 1 § 4¹, XIX 2 § 24, etc.
[1301] ut qui iam putent se non sibi parcere.
[1302] si non nummo sed partibus locem, ac deinde ex meis aliquos operis exactores custodes fructibus ponam. His new tenants would be coloni partiarii.
[1303] VIII 2.
[1304] V 6 § 12.
[1305] VIII 17.
[1306] VI 25.
[1307] interceptusne sit a suis an cum suis dubium.
[1308] Cf Juvenal X 19-22.
[1309] Fronto, when appointed to govern Asia, one of the most peaceful Provinces, at once looked out for a military officer to deal with latrones. Fronto p 169 Naber.
[1310] Paul Ephes 6 §§ 5 foll, Coloss 3 §§ 22 foll, I Pet 2 §§ 18 foll.
[1311] X 29, 30, with Hardy’s notes.
[1312] The first reference to a practice that was common later.
[1313] cum haberent condicionis suae conscientiam.
[1314] On the other hand we hear of free citizens trying to shirk army service earlier than this. Cf Sueton Aug 24, Tib 8.
[1315] Capitolinus Marcus 21 §§ 6, 7.
[1316] VII 18.
[1317] actori publico mancipavi. See chapter on the alimenta of Trajan’s time. References to municipal benefactions are very numerous in the Digest.
[1318] As we have seen above, the tenant coloni employed slave labour. Whether they worked with their own hands, or confined themselves to direction, probably varied in various cases.
[1319] Sueton Julius 26, 28.
[1320] Aug 21 sub lege ... ne in vicina regione servirent neve intra tricesimum annum liberarentur. See Shuckburgh’s note.
[1321] Aug 32, Tiber 8.
[1322] Aug 16.
[1323] Aug 24.
[1324] Aug 42 quod earum [frumentationum] fiducia cultura agrorum cessaret.
[1325] Aug 41 usum eius (pecuniae) gratuitum iis qui cavere in duplum possent.
[1326] Claud 25.
[1327] Nero 31.
[1328] Vesp 1.
[1329] mancipem operarum quae ex Umbria in Sabinos ad culturam agrorum quotannis commeare soleant.
[1330] Vesp 4 ad mangonicos quaestus. Hence his nickname mulio, for which as a sign of indigence cf Gellius XV 4.
[1331] Domit 7, 9. See p 272.
[1332] Fronto p 144 Naber, cf Seneca epist 44 § 3.
[1333] Sueton fragm p 24 Reifferscheid, Gellius III 3.
[1334] Gellius V 3.
[1335] Gellius II 18.
[1336] Madaura was in the Numidian part of the Province, near the Gaetulian border. See the Apologia 24. Oea, referred to below, was in the eastern strip, on the coast.
[1337] Juvenal VII 148-9 nutricula causidicorum Africa.
[1338] F Norden Apuleius von Madaura und das Römische Privatrecht (Teubner 1912).
[1339] Metamorphoses VIII 24. See Norden’s remarks pp 83-4.
[1340] See for instance Metam IV 9, VI 31, VII 4, 9.
[1341] Metam IX 39-42.
[1342] It seems certain that the convenience of humble rustics was little regarded by the upper classes. Even Marcus Aurelius (in Fronto p 35 Naber) confesses to the reckless scattering of a flock of sheep and to having been taken for a mounted brigand.
[1343] Metam IX 35-8. This is a case of periculum mortis ab hominis potentis crudelitate aut odio, referred to Digest XXXIX 6 § 3 [Paulus] as a risk like that of war or brigandage.
[1344] cuncta facile faciens in civitate.
[1345] Norden pp 161-3.
[1346] cum alioquin pauperes etiam liberali legum praesidio de insolentia locupletium consueverint vindicari.
[1347] Fierce dogs seem to have been a marked feature of country life. See VIII 17, IX 2.
[1348] hortulanus, see IV 3, IX 31-2, 39-42.
[1349] See V 17, VII 15, VIII 17, 29, 31. Cf Norden pp 88-9.
[1350] IX 32. Cf the case of small farmers in Africa, Apol 17, 23.
[1351] See IV 30, VIII 26. Cf Norden p 89, and pp 84-5 on metaphorical use of the legal term postliminium, which occurs also in Rutilius de reditu I 214.
[1352] Norden pp 26-7.
[1353] Apologia 17.
[1354] an ipse mutuarias operas cum vicinis tuis cambies.
[1355] Because of the strict rules of the laws passed to check manumission. Gaius I §§ 42-7. Norden p 86.
[1356] Apol 23.
[1357] triduo exarabas, to mark the smallness of the agellus.
[1358] Apol 93.
[1359] Apol 47 XV liberi homines populus est, totidem servi familia, totidem vincti ergastulum. See Norden p 87. ergastulum = the inmates of a lock-up, regarded as a body. See quotations from Columella p 263 and Pliny p 285, Mayor on Juvenal XIV 24, and cf Lucan II 95. So operae is used = ‘hands.’
[1360] viliconum, Apol 87. Cf Metam VIII 22.
[1361] Norden p 81.
[1362] Metam IX 12.
[1363] Herodian II 4 § 6.
[1364] δεσπότης.
[1365] Vopisc Aurel 48 § 2.
[1366] Vopisc Probus 16 § 6.
[1367] Trebell Claud 9 §§ 4, 5. Scythicis is an emendation. senibus MSS.
[1368] familias captivas.
[1369] Vopisc Aurel 39 § 7.
[1370] Lamprid Alex 55 §§ 2, 3, cf Trebell Gallien 9 § 5.
[1371] Vopisc Probus 18 §§ 1, 2. See Zosimus I 71 and No V of the Panegyrici cap 18 for other versions, in which the raiders are called Franks.
[1372] Even the extreme license of the soldiery, in deposing and murdering their own nominee, occurs repeatedly, and was no doubt one of the chief evils that prompted the reforms of Diocletian.
[1373] O Seeck, Untergang der antiken Welt book II ch 6.
[1375] See chapter on evidence of the Digest.
[1376] See chapter on the African inscriptions.
[1377] This matter is ably treated at length by Seeck op cit vol I pp 578-83. That they were distinct from coloni and servi is clear from the later constitutions in Cod Theod V 17, 18 (9, 10), XII 19, and Cod Just XI 48 § 13.
[1378] We shall find some reference to them later in the Codes.
[1379] Herodian VII 4 §§ 3-6.
[1380] τοὺς ἐκ τῶν ἀγρῶν οἰκέτας.
[1381] πεισθέντες κελεύουσι τοῖς δεσπόταις.
[1382] φύσει γὰρ πολυάνθρωπος οὖσα ἡ Λιβύη πολλοὺς εἶχε τοὺς τὴν γῆν γεωργοῦντας.
[1383] ὑπερμαχόμενοι τῶν δεσποτῶν.
[1384] Capitolinus Maximin 13 § 4, 14 § 1.
[1385] per rusticanam plebem deinde et quosdam milites interemptus est.
[1386] Frontin gromat p 53.
[1387] non exiguum populum plebeium.
[1388] legere tironem ex vico.
[1389] This evidence has come to hand since Heisterbergk wrote (1876) Die Entstehung des Colonats.
[1390] op cit pp 116-8.
[1391] Dion Cass epit LXXVI 10. For this story Dion is a contemporary witness.
[1392] The special treatises on these documents are fully mentioned in Girard’s Textes de droit Romain, ed 4, 1913. An essay on the Colons du saltus Burunitanus in Esmein’s Mélanges (1886) is still of great value.
[1393] Text in Girard’s Textes de droit Romain part III chapter 6.
[1394] We seem to have the names of two former owners, Varianus and Mancia. For the retention of names of former owners see Dittenberger in Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selectae No 669 note 18. Rostowzew Gesch des Röm colonates ch 4 rejects this view and makes the lex Manciana an imperial law.
[1395] Pliny epist III 19 § 7. Digest XIX 2 § 19², XXXII § 91¹, XXXIII 7 passim.
[1396] Dig XIX 2 § 3, and Monro’s note.
[1397] So Cuq, Seeck, Schulten, rightly I think. But in practice I believe the chance seldom occurred.
[1398] Text in Girard, part I chapter 4 § 10.
[1399] This significant hint seems to have been almost normal in such petitions. A good instance is the petition of Scaptoparene (see index, Inscriptions).
[1400] It is perhaps worth noting that under Commodus the transport of corn from Africa was specially provided for by the creation of a classis Africana for that purpose. See Lamprid Commodus 17 §§ 7, 8.
[1401] De Coulanges pp 10 foll deals with this point at length, but I think he pushes his conclusions too far.
[1402] Cf the Aragueni (see index, Inscriptions) παροίκων καὶ γεωργῶν τῶν ὑμετέρων.
[1403] Dig I 19 § 3¹ is of a later date, but refers to a protective rescript of Antoninus Pius. Cf XLIX 14 § 47¹, L 6 § 6¹¹. See Schulten in Hermes XLI pp 11-16.
[1404] CIL VIII 14428.
[1405] [domum rev]ertamur ubi libere morari possimus.
[1406] Seneca ad Helviam 7 § 7 ubicumque vicit Romanus habitat.
[1407] Text in Girard, part III chapter 6.
[1408] From comparing the remains of the next inscription (5) it appears that the emperor is Hadrian.
[1409] Cf agrum rudem provincialem in Hyginus, Gromat I 203. In the later empire we find legislation to promote such cultivation. See cod Th V 11 § 8 (365 AD), § 12 (388-392), 14 § 30 (386).
[1410] Dig XLI 3 § 33¹. Of course the dominus could possess per colonum. See Buckland, Elementary Principles § 38 p 77.
[1411] quae venibunt a possessoribus.
[1412] For aridi fructus cf Digest XLIX 14 § 50.
[1413] in cuius conductione agrum occupaverit.
[1414] rationi (bus fisci) gives the sense. But rationi simply may be correct, cf Digest II 14 § 42, etc.
[1415] Girard cites Rostowzew’s opinion that the right to occupy abandoned land as well as old wastes was an extension of the lex Manciana by the lex Hadriana.
[1416] See Dig XIX 2 §§ 15³, 24², 25³, 51ᵖʳ, 54¹.
[1417] Later legislation to prevent this neglect of poorer land. Cod Th V 14 § 34 (394 AD), X 3 § 4 (383), XI 1 § 4 (337), etc.
[1418] Prof Buckland writes to me that he believes these squatters were to be owners, not coloni, owners in the only sense possible in non-Italic soil, paying tributum. The words frui possidere used to describe their right are the technical words for provincial ownership. Cf Gaius II 7.
[1419] In Hermes XXIX pp 215, 224.
[1420] Girard, part III chapter 6.
[1421] lege Manciana condicione saltus Neroniani vicini nobis.
[1422] It is tempting to identify these with the six mentioned in Nos (2) and (4) above.
[1423] For the vast extent of imperial estates, particularly in Africa, see Hirschfeld, der Grundbesitz der Römischen Kaiser, in his Kleine Schriften.
[1424] De Coulanges seems hardly to recognize how small was the amount of operae, a few days in the year. But in his tenth chapter he shews how vastly the system was extended (so many days a week) in the early Middle Age.
[1425] Mommsen in Hermes XV pp 391-6.
[1426] Such as the lex coloniae Genetivae Iuliae of 44 BC, and the leges of Salpensa and Malaca of 81-4 AD. Girard, and Bruns’ Fontes.
[1427] Esmein p 309 well refers to the passages in Lachmann’s Feldmesser, Frontinus p 53 and Siculus Flaccus p 164. Cf Hirschfeld l.c. p 558.
[1428] Colum I 6 §§ 7, 8.
[1429] Colum I 7.
[1430] conductor and coloni are both bound by the statute for the fundus or saltus. In theory both are tenants of the emperor, in practice the conductor has the upper hand, as Cuq points out.
[1431] Compare Dig XIX 2 § 15⁴ with § 25⁶.
[1432] quasi societatis iure. Of course not a real socius. See Index, colonia partiaria, and Vinogradoff, Growth of the Manor note 91 on p 109.
[1433] See Dig I 19 § 3¹, an opinion of Callistratus, a jurist of the time of Severus. That in some sense or other the coloni were tenants of the emperor seems certain. See CIL VIII 8425 (Pertinax), 8426 (Caracalla), also 8702, 8777. And Esmein pp 313-5.
[1434] This becomes an important subject of legislation in the Theodosian code. See Cod Th V 11 § 8, 14 § 30.
[1435] See de Coulanges pp 140-4, where this view is more strongly expressed.
[1436] Die Entstehung des Colonats pp 70 foll, citing especially Frontinus Gromat I p 35 and Columella III 3 § 11.
[1437] This is very nearly the view of Wallon III 264 ‘le Colonat à l’origine ne fut pas un droit mais un fait.’ Ib 266.
[1438] I have made some reference to it below in the chapter on the Digest.
[1439] This is fully treated by Seeck, bk III c 5.
[1440] In the Ain el Djemala inscription we have them used indifferently. It is not clear that the usage in various provinces was identical. See Vinogradoff Growth of the Manor pp 69, 70.
[1441] Given in a long note, vol I pp 578-83.
[1442] Marcian in Dig XXX § 112ᵖʳ. Cf L 15 § 4⁸ (Title de censibus) si quis inquilinum vel colonum non fuerit professus etc, where the mention of colonum is suspected of interpolation by Seeck.
[1443] Dig XXX § 112ᵖʳ si quis inquilinos sine praediis quibus adhaerent legaverit, inutile est legatum (Marcian). Esmein p 313 takes them to be really slaves, but I cannot follow him.
[1444] This conclusion, I am pleased to find, had been forestalled by Esmein p 307.
[1445] Le Colonat Romain pp 125, 132.
[1446] In fact, as we say, edited.
[1447] Of this Title there is a useful little edition by the late C H Monro.
[1448] XIX 2 § 15², 25⁶, also § 15¹,⁸.
[1449] XIX 2 § 15²,⁵.
[1450] XIX 2 §§ 15³, 24², 25³, 51ᵖʳ, 54¹.
[1451] XVII 2 § 46, XLIV 7 § 34², XLVII 2 § 68⁵.
[1452] XIX 2 § 54ᵖʳ, XX 6 § 14, etc.