Public Land in the Roman Republic

Abstract

This book discusses the history of Roman state‐owned land from the early expansion of Rome into Italy to the Social War. Rome usually took land from its defeated enemies, which it then declared to be ‘Roman public land’ or ager publicus. Such land could be distributed to Roman citizens in private ownership or remain in the hands of the state. The book discusses, first, the extent and location of this kind of land, and then the different legal conditions to which such land could be subject. It argues that from the third century BC onwards pressure on the land in Italy increased, as a result of both population growth and an increased demand for land among commercial producers, who wished to profit from growing markets. This in turn resulted in a growing demand for privatization of state‐owned land, as producers wished to safeguard the rights they had to use the land. This led the Roman state to create new legal possibilities for tenure of the land, and in the second and first centuries BC to complete privatization of ager publicus. The book combines new insights on population development and transformations in the Roman economy with detailed study of the legal conditions of ager publicus, using a variety of literary, archaeological, and epigraphical materials. In so doing it argues that many traditional views of late Roman Republican history, such as the occupation of ager publicus by the rich and the resulting decline in the welfare of the Roman peasantry, can no longer be sustained.