Rivers and flood risk management in rural areas: some evidence from classical Roman law

Abstract

Especially in antiquity, rivers would both consist of a great resource, and they would exert a fearsome destructive power—vis cui resisti non potest, as Roman jurists used to assert. To prevent the risk of floods, Romans would not only carry out important public works, but also establish technical-juridical rules to induce both private individuals and communities to take care of the problem. Those rules were partly drawn up in public documents (such as praetorian edicta, leges dictae and so on), partly conceived by Roman jurists in a continuous debate starting at least from the first century AD to the third century AD and partly developed by discussions among Roman land surveyors.