The Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum (Corpus of Roman Land Surveyors) is a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

book on

land surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

which collects works by

Siculus Flaccus Siculus Flaccus (date uncertain) was an ancient Roman '' gromaticus'' (land surveyor), and writer in Latin on land surveying. His work was included in a collection of gromatic treatises in the 6th century AD. Siculus Flaccus made the distinction be ...

Frontinus Sextus Julius Frontinus (c. 40 – 103 AD) was a prominent Roman civil engineer, author, soldier and senator of the late 1st century AD. He was a successful general under Domitian, commanding forces in Roman Britain, and on the Rhine and Danube ...

, Agennius Urbicus,

Hyginus Gromaticus Hyginus Gromaticus (Gromaticus from '' groma'', a surveying device) was a Latin writer on land-surveying, who flourished in the reign of Trajan (AD 98–117). Fragments of a work on boundaries attributed to him are found in '' Corpus Agrimensoru ...

and other writers, known as the Agrimensores ("land surveyors"). The work is preserved in various manuscripts, of which the oldest is the 6th or 7th-century Codex Arcerianus.

Contents and authors

The ''Corpus'' consists of a number of texts with different contents, composed at different dates. The Codex Arcerianus alone contains 33 separate works, most of which are the writings of the Agrimensores. These writings were clearly written as textbooks or manuals for working land surveyors. The most important authors in the collection are

(1st century AD), Agennius Urbicus (5th or 6th century),

(2nd century), and Marcus Junius Nipsus (2nd century). Another important component of the work are the ''Libri Coloniarum'' ("Books of

Colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

"), lists of surveyed areas of countryside and cities in Italy between

Etruria Etruria () was a region of Central Italy, located in an area that covered part of what are now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and northern and western Umbria. Etruscan Etruria The ancient people of Etruria are identified as Etruscan civiliza ...

and

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, mostly in southern Italy. Possibly, these were areas that were subject to land surveys, although they had already been occupied under the ''arcifinalis'' law (i.e. land survey and distribution at point of conquest). The process is much debated among historians. A third sub-set of works in the corpus are writings which deal with the mathematical and geometric aspects of land surveying. The most important of these are the ''Expositio et ratio omnium formarum'' (Explanation and Calculation of All Shapes) by Balbus and a mathematical work by Epaphrodites and Vitruvius Rufus Various other texts are also bundled into the ''Corpus'', including: *Extracts from Euclid's ''Elements'' *Extracts from

Columella Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (; Arabic: , 4 – ) was a prominent writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire. His ' in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture, together with the wo ...

's ''De re rustica'' *The ''Lex Mamila Roscia Peducaea Alliena Fabia'', part of a

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...

on setting and protecting land boundaries. In particular, the law imposes a fine of 5,000

sesterces The ''sestertius'' (plural ''sestertii''), or sesterce (plural sesterces), was an ancient Roman coin. During the Roman Republic it was a small, silver coin issued only on rare occasions. During the Roman Empire it was a large brass coin. The na ...

for moving a boundary stone. The date of the law is debated, but it is likely that the law was proposed and passed by Gaius Mamilius Limetanus when he was

tribune of the people Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune ( la, tribunus plebis) was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of ...

in 109 BC.

Transmission and legacy

The ''Corpus'' is transmitted in several manuscripts. The oldest of these is the sixth- or seventh-century

uncial Uncial is a majuscule Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. (1996) ''Encyclopedia of the Book''. 2nd edn. New Castle, DE, and London: Oak Knoll Press & The British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one ...

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

known as the Codex Arcerianus or Codex Guelfferbytanus 36.23 Augusteus 2, now held in the

Herzog August Bibliothek The Herzog August Library (german: link=no, Herzog August Bibliothek — "HAB"), in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, known also as ''Bibliotheca Augusta'', is a library of international importance for its collection from the Middle Ages and ear ...

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest c ...

. This is one of the few surviving non-literary and non-religious

illuminated manuscripts An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...

from

late antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

. Like all later manuscripts, this text contains gabs and corrupt sections; the beginning and ending of the manuscript are both missing. The various scripts and formats of the manuscript show that the work is a compilation. Different manuscripts have very different contents. For example, Siculus Flaccus' text is absent from the Codex Arcerianus and manuscripts derived from it, except for a short extract appearing within another text. The ''Corpus'', especially its mathematical portions, were also included in the encyclopaedic works of

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

. Its influence may extend to the . The collection was still widely read in the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

Printing and translation

Individual texts from the ''Corpus'' began to appear in printed editions from 1491. In 1554,

Adrianus Turnebus Adrianus Turnebus (french: Adrien Turnèbe or ''Tournebeuf''; 151212 June 1565) was a French classical scholar. Life Turnebus was born in Les Andelys in Normandy. At the age of twelve he was sent to Paris to study, and attracted great notice by ...

published a printed edition of the majority of the ''Corpus'', including the important Agrimensores, under the title ''De Agrorum Conditionibus et Constitutionibus Limitum'' (On the Creation of Fields and Delimitation of their Borders).

Petrus Scriverius Petrus Scriverius, the latinised form of Peter Schrijver or Schryver (12 January 1576 – 30 April 1660), was a Dutch writer and scholar on the history of the Low Countries. He was born at Haarlem and was educated by Cornelis Schoneus at the ...

used the Codex Arcerianus as the basis of his edition in 1607. The German ancient historian,

Karl Lachmann Karl Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Lachmann (; 4 March 1793 – 13 March 1851) was a German philologist and critic. He is particularly noted for his foundational contributions to the field of textual criticism. Biography Lachmann was born in Bruns ...

edited significant portions of the collection, especially the writings of the Agrimensores Frontinues, Agennius Urbicus, Hyginus Gromaticus and Siculus Flaccus, as well as the ''Libri Coloniarum'' in 1848. The 1913 edition of Carl Olof Thulin contains only a few works. The 2000 edition of Brian Campbell is much broader and also contains an English translation.

References

Editions

* * ''Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum'' (Cod. Guelf. 36.23 Aug. 2°, Codex Arcerianus): ein Agrimensorencodex, illustriertes Handbuch für den römischen Feldvermesser, 6. Jahrhundert, in der Herzog August Bibliothek. Fotomechnische Reproduktion mit einer Einleitung von Hans Butzmann, Leiden 1970, ISBN 90-218-9230-8. * Carl Olof Thulin, ed., ''Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum'' (= ''Opuscula agrimensorum veterum.'' I). Leipzig 1913 (Nachdruck Stuttgart 1971), ISBN 3-519-01245-6. *

Contents and authors

Transmission and legacy

Printing and translation

References

Editions

Further reading