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The Land-Register of Arausio

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

I. A. Richmond  and
C. E. Stevens
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Extract

The famous inscription (pl. iii, I) from Orange, forming part of a tabula censualis and enumerating parcels of land called merides, together with their lessees, sureties and land-tax, has been the subject of several learned commentaries since its discovery in 1904. These have established that the merides are not plots of agricultural land, but of urbanised property. Their position in the urban area is, however, less certain. It has been thought that they fronted upon the kardo of the surveyors; but this interpretation of the abbreviation ad K, which concludes the tabulation of each plot, is convincingly shown in an article to be published in this Journal to be supplanted by the expansion ad k(alendarium), meaning the ‘municipal register of debtors’.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 1-2 , November 1942 , pp. 65 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © I. A. Richmond and C. E. Stevens 1942. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Digonnet, Mémoires de l'Academie de Vaucluse 1904, 209 ff.; thence Espérandieu, Inscriptions de la Gaule Narbonnaise 186; Bruns, Fontes iuris Romani p. 343, no. 142 (with misreference to Déchelette instead of Digonnet); Haverfield, Ancient Town-planning (1913), reproducing Espérandieu, Comptes Rendus de l'Acad. des Inscr. et Belles Lettres 1904, 497, plate, but reading the sign × as denarii and not as a linear measurement; Stuart Jones, Companion to Roman History 21, 22 (fig. 5), 23 (fig. 6), with an excellent reproduction of the inscription and sketch-plan showing relative position and size of blocks. Both Haverfield and Stuart Jones accept Espérandieu's expansion ad k(ardinem).

2 Espérandieu, Comptes Rendus (see note I); also Rev. ep. v (1903–6), p. 97, no. 158; Schulten, Hermes ‘Vom antiken Cataster’ xli, I ff., the most elaborate of the discussions.

3 Schulten, op. cit., p. 5 ff.; Haverfield, op. cit.

4 We are much indebted to Dr. Fritz Schulz for permitting us to make use of his view in his article on ‘Roman Registration of Births and Birth-Certificates’ before the publication of Part II in the Journal vol. xxxiii. There is no doubt that the interpretation is in itself convincing; and when the position of the abbreviation, always at the end of the tabulation, is compared with that of the not dissimilar abbreviation for kardo in the land-surveys, discussed by Mr. Stevens below (p. 70 ff), it will be seen that the very difference in position connotes and accentuates the difference in meaning.

5 Schulten, op. cit., p. 6 ff.

6 Le prétendu cirque romain d'Orange, Mémoires presentées par divers savants à l'Acad. des Inscr. et Belles Lettres, ser. I, xiii (1923), 213Google Scholar ff. He notes that De la Pise confused amphitheatre and circus, see below, p. 68.

7 Op. tit.

8 Rev. ép. v (1903–1906), 168 ffGoogle Scholar.

9 Overbeck-Mau, Pompeii (1884) 193 ff. = Mau-Kelsey 1899, 154 ff.

10 Cena Trimalchiornis, 117: tanquam legitimi gladiatores domino corpora animasque retigiosissime addicimus. Cf. Friedländer, , Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms9 ii, 60, n. 2Google Scholar.

11 Rutilius Rufus and Marius; Val. Max. ii, 3, 2.

12 Jordan, Forma Urbis frag. 4; Bull. Com. 1899, 21, tav. i–ii, 16–17; Kiepert et Huelsen, Forma Urbis Romae antiqyae (1896), 43 s.v.

13 Svenskt arkiv for humanistiska avhandlingar ii, V. Lundström, Undersökningar i Roms topografi p. 22.

14 Ibid. 32.

15 Juv. Sat. viii, 210.

16 Friedländer, Sittengeschichte9 ii, 65 ff.; see also Daremberg et Saglio, Dict, des Antiquités s.v. ‘Gladiator’.

17 Archaeologia lxxviii, III ff.

18 Der römische Limes in Österreich Heft xvi, 68 ff.; xvii, 1 ff.

19 Archaeologia lxxviii, 1928, III ff.Google Scholar (Caerleon); Journ. Chester & N. Wales A.A. & H. Soc., n.s. xxix, pl. xvi (Chester); Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Traianssäule, scene xxxiii–xxxiv, cf. PBSR xiii, 31.

20 Inventory of Anc. Mons. in Merioneth (RCA & HM vi) 151.

21 Tacitus, Ann. iii, 43: also s.v., in Holder, Alt-keltischer Sprachschatz and Dottin, La langue gauloise.

22 Mommsen, Staatsrecht3 ii, 2, 1071, citing CIL iii, 249; Hirschfeld, Die kaiserlichen Verwaltungsbeamten2 292, citing CIL ii, 4159 (Barcelona), tabul(arius) ludi Gallic(i) et Hisp(anici), ‘es scheint demnach für Spanien und Gallien nur ein gemeinsamer Ludus existiert zu haben.’

23 Gasparin, Histoire de l'Orange 106.

24 Ibid. 106.

25 Tableau de l'histoire des princes et de la principauté d'Orange. The writer is much indebted to the Librarian of Christ Church, Oxford, who placed the volume at his disposal for study through the medium of the Regional lending scheme. This copy, however, lacks the plates which are mentioned on p. 14 of the work, and which occur in the Bodleian copy.

26 Ibid. 29.

27 Ibid. 30.

28 Ibid. 14–15.

29 Châtelain, , Les monuments remains d'Orange (Bibl. de l'Éc. des Hautes Ét. 170, 1908) 172 ff.Google Scholar, nos. 52 and 53 = CIL xii, 5836 (ILS 5102), 5837.

30 Tac. Ann. iii, 43, ‘quibus more gentico continuum ferri tegimen.’ This implies a native type, as does the name: see n. 21 above.

31 Mommsen, , Ges. Schrift v, 109Google Scholar.

32 CIL xii, 1244 B, C, and p. 324; Espéiandieu, Inscr. Lat. Narb. 183. Mommsen, , Rev. épigr. iii, 143Google Scholar, gives the measurements of B C D as 0·14 m. high and O·II wide, Châtelain, , Les monuments romains d'Orange 131 (pl. iii, 2)Google Scholar as ·03 m. high and ·06 m. wide, which in any case cannot be correct; in wartime it is not possible to have them verified, because the fragments are now in the Musée S. Germain-en-Laye. They were first combined by Weber, , Röm. Agrargeschichte i, 112Google Scholar.

33 CIL xii, 1244 A, now lost. Copies were made by Caristie (Mon. ant. d'Orange 46, fig.) and—showing progressive damage to the stone—by Herzog and de Saulcy (in CIL xii, 1244).

34 Formigé in Bull. Soc. Ant. France 1929, 167.

35 It is hard to see why Grenier (Manuel d'arch. gallo-romaine vi (= ii), 19, n. 2) should state that the cadastration ‘serapporte à l'intérieur de la ville et non à la campagne’.

36 Caristie gives IRIC, and a letter preceding the R seems to have been present in stone E (and see Appendix, p. 77).

37 Vita Caes. 38, 1.

38 So Mommsen, , Ges. Schrift. v, 110Google Scholar. Schulten, , Hermes xli, 1906, 27Google Scholar, expands ex(empti) trib(uto), which would remove the financial difficulty and may be right. Nevertheless the expansion is unexpected and the mention of tribute seems out of place, if the stones are merely assigning land for prospective colonists.

39 Herzog's cxxxciv can hardly be right: no doubt the stone was becoming illegible here.

40 Gromatici Veteres 213 (ed. Lachmann, in Blume, , Rudorff, Lachmann u. Die Schriften der Römischen Feldmesser, Berlin 1848, vol. iGoogle Scholar.

41 Ib. i, 164 (ed. Thulin); 201 (ed. Lachmann).

42 The significance of this figure was pointed out to me by Mr. Richmond. As will be seen, it is the keystone of the whole hypothesis.

43 So Hirschfeld. ap. Mommsen, l.c.v, III.

44 Probably not, however, a town aqueduct; for the winding course suggests rather a stream or brook.

46 Schulten, , Hermes xxxiii, 563Google Scholar.

46 Schulten, (Hermes xli, 29)Google Scholar supposes that the missing 90 iugera were not entered because they were waste land. But such a quantity of waste included inside the centuria would be most surprising, nor is it likely to have existed in the fertile plain ot Orange.

47 ‘Befremdend,’ Mommsen, l.c. 112.

48 Gromatici Veteres i, 54 (ed. Thulin, )Google Scholar; 31, 110 (ed. Lachmann).

49 Ibid. i, 169 (ed. Thulin); 206 (ed. Lachmann).

50 l.c. 112; Meizen, Siedelung- und Agrarwesen iii, 145.

51 Schulten takes the two XVI figures to represent still more iugera of waste land (Hermes xli, 30).

52 Mommsen at first admitted this (ad CIL xii, 1244), but afterwards recanted (Ges. Schrift. v, 113). First thoughts were best, as Schulten clearly demonstrates (Hermes xli, 21).

53 Mommsen (l.c. 112) doubts whether IIX could stand for VIII. The subtraction method applied to two units is certainly rare, but not unknown, as Mommsen confesses. Indeed there is an example (cxxciv) on stone A.

54 It is perfectly clear on Meizen's photograph (l.c. iii, Anl. 37 from the stone) and even on Chatelain's (from a cast = pl. iii. 2).

55 Meizen's photograph perhaps shows an original stroke as well as the point between I and X of the N.A. entries.

56 See Ashby, Aqueducts 12. Allowing 6 ft. for the aqueduct itself (cf. JRS xxiii, 154) 30 ft. for its legal free space, and 1,300 ft. for the slightly skew course across the short axis of the actus, we have the sum iugera.

57 Gromatici veteres, i, 9, 127 (ed. Thulin, )Google Scholar; 22, 163 (ed.Lachmann); P-W s.v. ‘Limitatio’ 683.

58 Schulten's conjectures (Hermes xli, 30) can hardly be objectively refuted: they seem very hazardous.

59 Gromatici veteres i, 35, 73 (ed. Thulin, )Google Scholar; 45, 113 (ed.Lachmann); P-W, s.v. ‘Accepta’.

60 Ibid. i, 2 (ed. Thulin); 7 (ed. Lachmann).

61 Suetonius, Domitian 9, 3; Gromatici i, 41, 57, 66, 97 (ed. Thulin, )Google Scholar; 8, 20, 54, 82, III, 133, 284 (ed. Lachmann).

62 Schulten's ex(empti) trib(uto) — see above, p. 71, n. 38—would certainly make things easier here.

63 Mommsen, , Staatsrecht iii, 807Google Scholar.

64 Abbott and Johnson, Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire (1926) 39, 118, 127 ff.; G. H. Stevenson, Roman Provincial Administration (1939), 151 ff.

65 Cicero, Verr. iii, 47, 112Google Scholar.

66 Young, Travels in France, ed. 2, 352.

67 P-W s.v. ‘Ackerbau’ 280.

68 Rostovtzeff in P-W s.v. ‘Frumentum’ 146.

69 Schulten's calculations (Hermes xli, 31) seem ill-founded. For (I) he works with Columella's very low average yield for all Italy (RR iii, 3, 4), (2) he tariffs wheat as high as I denarius to the modius, (3) he neglects the fallow-year.

70 Mommsen, , Provinces i, 108Google Scholar.

71 It remains to attempt the location of the centuriae upon the ground. Tests with the Carte d'État-Maj, have raised hopes, which cannot, however, blossom until the time when Orange may again be visited.