Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

AGER PUBLICUS.

14

AGNOMEN.

2. The hind which had previously served as
the common pasture land of the conquered
state, or was suitable for the purpose,
continued to be used as pasture land by
the Roman citizens, 'who had, however, to
pay a certain sum of money for the cattle
which they turned upon it. The occupation
of the public land spoken of above under the
second head was always expressed by the
words possessio and possidere, and the occu-
pier of the land was called the jmssessor. The
land continued to be the property of the
state; and accordingly we must distinguish
between the terms possessio, which merely
indicated the use or enjoyment of the land,
and dominium, which expressed ownership,
and was applied to private land, of which a
man had the absolute ownership. The right
of occupying the public land belonged only
to citizens, and consequently only to the pa-
tricians originally, as they were the state.
The plebeians were only subjects, and conse-
quently had no right to the property of the
state ; but it is probable that they were per-
mitted to feed their cattle on the public
pasture lands. Even when the plebeians
became a separate estate by the constitution
of Servius Tullius, they still obtained no
right to share in the possession of the public
land, which continued to be the exclusive
privilege of the patricians ; but as a compen-
sation, each individual plebeian received an
assignment of a certain quantity of the public
land as his own property. Henceforth the
possession of the public land was the privi-
lege of the patricians, and an assignment of a
portion of it the privilege of the plebeians.
As the state acquired new lands by conquest,
the plebeians ought to have received assign-
ments of part of them, but since the patri-
cians were the governing body, they generally
refused to make any such assignment, and
continued to keep the whole as part of the
ager publicus, whereby the enjoyment of it
belonged to them alone. Hence, we con-
stantly read of the plebeians claiming, and
sometimes enforcing, a division of such land.
With the extension of the conquests of Rome,
the ager publicus constantly increased, and
thus a large portion of Italy fell into the
hands of the patricians, who frequently with-
held from the state the annual payments of a
tenth and a fifth, which they were bound to
pay for the possession of the land, and thus
deprived the state of a fund for the expenses
of the war. In addition to which they used
slaves as cultivators and shepherds, since
freemen were liable to be drawn off from
field-labour to military service, and slave-
lsbour was consequently far cheaper. In this
way the number of free labourers was dimi-

nished, and that of slaves augmented. To
remedy this state of things several laws were
from time to time proposed and carried,
which were most violently opposed by the
patricians. All laws which related to the
public land are called by the general title of
Leges Agrariae, and accordingly all the early
laws relating to the possession of the public
land by the patricians, and to the assignment
of portions of it to the plebeians, were
strictly agrarian laws; but the first law to
which this name is usually applied was pro-
posed soon after the establishment of the
republic by the consul, Sp. Cassius, in b.c.
486. Its object was to set apart the portion
of the public land which the patricians were
to possess, to divide the rest among the ple-
beians, to levy the payment due for the pos-
session, and to apply it to paying the army.
The first law, however, which really deprived
the patricians of the advantages they had
previously enjoyed in the occupation of the
public land was the agrarian law of C. Li-
cinius Stolo (b.c. 366), which limited each
individual's possession of public land to 500
jugera, and declared that no individual should
have above 100 large and 500 smaller cattle
on the public pastures : it further enacted
that the surplus land was to be divided
among the plebeians. As this law, however,
was soon disregarded, it was revived again
by Tib. Sempronius Gracchus (b.c. 133), with
some alterations and additions. The details
of the other agrarian laws mentioned in
Roman history are given under the name of
the lex by which they are called. [Lex.]

AGGER (x"Zxa)> from ad and gero, was
used in general for a heap or mound of any
kind. It was more particularly applied :—
(1) To a mound, usually composed of earth,
which was raised round a besieged town, and
which was gradually increased in breadth
and height, till it equalled or overtopped the
walls. The agger was sometimes made, not
only of earth, but of wood, hurdles, &c. ;
whence we read of the agger being set on
fire.-—(2) To the earthen wall surrounding a
Roman encampment, composed of the earth
dug from the ditch (fossa), which was usu-
ally 9 feet broad and 7 feet deep; but if any
attack was apprehended, the depth was in-
creased to 12 feet and the breadth to 13 feet.
Sharp stakes, &c, were usually fixed upon
the agger, which was then called vallum.
AVhen both words are used, the agger means
the mound of earth, and the vallum the
stakes, &c, which were fixed upon the igger.

AGITATORES. [Circus.]

AGMEN. [Exercitus.]

AGNATE [Cogstati.J

AGNOMEN. [Nomen.]