Subseciva

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Subseciva is a term used in the ancient agrimensors ( mensores ) and describes the remaining pieces of land that cannot be divided up during land surveying. The underlying adjective is also transmitted in manuscripts as subsicivus , subcisivus , succisivus and is made up of sub and the verb seco , i.e. it means accruing during cutting . The Roman encyclopaedist Marcus Terentius Varro describes the division of arable land by the agrimensors into rectangular iugera . Plots of land that are no longer sufficient for an iugerum are referred to as in subsicivum esse (land that falls away as the remainder).

Roman field surveying in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD

The importance of the subseciva for the Roman surveying of the field is shown by how often they are mentioned in the collection of surveyors' writings, the Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum . In the texts edited by Brian Campbell alone, the term appears in 24 places, sometimes only briefly mentioned, sometimes with longer explanations. The reference value is now the centuria (= 200 iugera ), so that much larger areas are covered. The subseciva , similarly as with Varro, defined as: ... quod in exremis adsignatorum agrorum finibus centuria expleri non potuit (the area boundary prevents the formation of a full centuria ). And: ... quidquid inter normalem lineam et extremitatem interest (the land between the surveyorized line and the irregular area boundary).

Land parcels within the centuria that could not be allocated are now also counted as subseciva ( aliud etiam integris centuriis interuenit ... non potuit omnis modus intra IIII limites ueteranis adsignari ). Areas that are not surveyed because they are not suitable for agricultural use ( iniquitate locorum ) do not belong to the subseciva . However, they are assigned the ius subsecivorum, i.e. legally and administratively treated like subseciva .

Ius subsecivorum

The subseciva were treated legally and administratively very differently depending on their type and time. The auctor divisionis (author, person responsible for distribution) could keep them for himself, hand them over to the responsible municipality or to a private person, they could also be sold. But it also happened that neighbors "occupy the quasi-ownerless land": per longum enim tempus attingui possessores, uacantia loca quasi incitante otiosi (soli) opportunitate [m] inuaserunt

But there was also the legal principle that this land and its allocation belonged to the Roman emperor . The attempt of the emperor Vespasian to enforce this consistently, however, led to unrest and was canceled again by Domitian . It remains to be seen whether the veteres possessores are those who are currently occupying the land or those who have already been dispossessed. There is also an inscription in which Domitian orders the sale of the subseciva, which is disputed between two communities .

Development of the term

The Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum lived on through antiquity and was still received in the palace school of Charlemagne . In the foreground, however, were the arithmitic / geometric themes. The term subseciva disappears from the focus of consideration. Even Isidore of Seville takes him at the beginning of the 7th century, although in his Encyclopedia on and compares it vividly with the leather waste of the shoemaker. But he knows the meaning of the term only approximately and speaks of swampy and barren land, or residual land, which is not sufficient for a full centuria .

Text editing and translation

  • Brian Campbell: The writings of the Roman land surveyors. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, London 2000.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Weinstock : Subseciva. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV A, 1, Stuttgart 1931, Col. 501 f.
  2. ^ Karl Ernst Georges : Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary
  3. ^ Marcus Terentius Varro, De re rustica I, X.
  4. ^ Brian Campbell: The writings of the Roman land surveyors. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, London 2000, p. 550.
  5. ^ Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum : Julius Frontinus , De agrorum qualitate , Brian Campbell p. 2.24-30.
  6. ^ Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum : Agennius Urbicus , De controversiis agrorum , Brian Campbell p. 38.5 ff.
  7. ^ Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum : De controversis , Brian Campbell p. 70.9 ff.
  8. ^ Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum : Hygin , De generibus controversiarum , Brian Campbell p. 98.15 ff.
  9. ^ Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum : Agennius Urbicus, De controversiis agrorum , Brian Campbell p. 38.10 f.
  10. ^ Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum : Agennius Urbicus, De controversiis agrorum , Brian Campbell p. 38.14 ff.
  11. ^ Suetonius : De vita Caesarum , Domitian IX, 3.
  12. ^ Adolf August Friedrich Rudorff : Gromatic institutions. In: Friedrich Blume , Karl Lachmann, Adolf August Friedrich Rudorff (eds.): Gromatici veteres. The writings of the Roman surveyors. 2 volumes, G. Reimer, Berlin 1848-52, Vol. 2, pp. 292-464, here p. 392 f. ( online ).
  13. ↑ CIL 09, 5420
  14. ↑ Menso Folkerts: The mathematics of the agrimensors - sources and aftermath. in: Eberhard Knobloch , Cosima Möller (ed.): In the fields of the Roman surveyors. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-029084-4 , p. 142 ff.
  15. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae XV, XIII.