Erogationes extra urbem in Iberian aqueducts: additional evidence for irrigation in Roman Hispania?

Abstract

The use of irrigation in Roman times has been analysed in different parts of the Empire and evidence for irrigation has been found in Rome and other cities in Italy, France, North Africa and the Near East. Although there is increasing archaeological evidence for the use of irrigation in the Iberian Peninsula during the Roman period, the full extent of irrigation in Hispania is only now coming to be appreciated, as a result of work like Beltran Lloris on the Lex Rivi Hiberiensis irrigation inscription. This paper will focus on one particular phenomenon that can be used to prove the use of this practice in these western provinces, the extra urbem use (use outside cities) of the water from urban aqueducts.