''Compascuus'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for commonly grazed, and hence often used in the forms ''ager compascuus'' (common

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

land) and ''compascuum'' (the common pasture). In the early

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...

, there were three kinds of land: private, public and common pasture. The ''

Lex Agraria The ''Lex Agraria'' can refer to a Roman law proposed in 133 BC during the tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus. The law involved the redistribution of public land, previously owned by the senatorial class, to the lower classes in ancient Rome, using mo ...

'', which formalized the existing situation after the land reforms, set limits on how many cattle an individual could graze on ''ager compascuus'' without having to pay dues.

Placenames

This ancient term is still preserved in some placenames in

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nov ...

, because the border between the Netherlands and Germany in the

Bourtange moor The Bourtanger Moor (Dutch: ''Bourtangerveen/Bourtangermoeras'', German: ''Bourtanger Moor'', Low Saxon: ''Boertanger Moor'') was a bog in eastern parts in the Dutch provinces of Drenthe and Groningen and the bordering German districts of Benth ...

was not delimited and was a common pasture for shepherds from both sides of the border. *

Barger-Compascuum Barger-Compascuum is a village in the Dutch municipality of Emmen. It is in a peat-producing region of Drenthe. , an open-air museum, is dedicated to the peat history of the region. Borger-Compascuum is located in the Bourtange moor between Germ ...

Emmer-Compascuum Emmer-Compascuum is a village in the Netherlands and is part of the Emmen municipality in Drenthe. Emmer-Compascuum is located in the Bourtange moor between Germany and the Netherlands. It was originally a ''compascuum'' (common pasture). In 187 ...

References

Agricultural land {{geo-term-stub