Quiritium, the law of the Roman city, the optimum jus civium Romanorum. The peregrinus was excluded from landed property both Roman and private; he could neither inherit nor transmit; claim nor defend in equity. Moreover the name peregrinus was not confined to the stranger proper but was also bestowed upon subjects of Rome[8] who, being deprived of their property and also of political liberty by right of conquest, had not received the right of citizenship which was for a long time confined within very narrow limits. It would thus appear conclusive from the law quoted that the client and plebeian could not at first hold land optimo ex jure quiritium.

Thus the tenure of the patricians was threefold: First, they had full property in the land; second, they had a seigniorial right, jus in re, in the land of their clients and the plebeians whose property belonged to the populus, i.e. the generality of the patricians; in the third place, in their own hands, they held lands which were portions of the domain and which were held by a very precarious tenure called possessio.

According to Ihne, all lands in Rome were held by the above mentioned tenure until the enactment of the Icilian law de Aventino publicando which involved a change of tenure by converting the former dependent and incumbered tenure of the plebeians into full property.

• [Footnote 1: De Officiis, I, 12; Gaius, Frag., 234: Digest, 50, 16.]
• [Footnote 2: Varro, De L.L.V. 14; Plautus, Trinummus, Act I, Scene 2, V. 75; Harper's Latin Dictionary; Cicero, De Off., I, 12: "Hostis enim apud majores nostros is dicibatur, quem nunc peregrinum dicimus."]
• [Footnote 3: Cic., loc. cit.; Gaius, Frag., 234.]
• [Footnote 4: Forcellini, Lexic.; Harper's Latin Lex.]
• [Footnote 5: i.e. The descendents of a person escheated could bring no action for the recovery of the property.]
• [Footnote 6: Giraud, Recherches sur le Droit de Propriété, p. 210.]
• [Footnote 7: Gaius, Bk. II, 40.]
• [Footnote 8: Ulpian, Frag., Title XIX, 4; Giraud, 216.]

SEC. 3.—AGER PUBLICUS.

In her early history Rome was continually making fresh conquests, and in this way adding to her territory.[1] She steadfastly pursued a course of destruction to her neighbors in order that she might thereby grow rich and powerful. In this way large tracts of territory became Roman land, the property of the state or Ager Publicus.[2]

This public land extended in proportion to the success of the Roman arms, since the confiscation of the territory of the vanquished was, in the absence of more favorable terms, a part of the law of war. All conquered lands before being granted or sold to private individuals were Ager Publicus[3] a term which with few exceptions came to embrace the whole Roman world.

This Ager Publieus was farther increased by towns[4] voluntarily surrendering themselves to Rome without awaiting the iron hand of war. These were commonly mulcted of one-third of their land.[5] "The soil of the country is not the product of labor any more than is water or air. Individual citizens cannot therefore lay any claim to lawful property in land as to anything[6] produced by their own hands." The state in this case, as the representative of the rights and interests of society, decides how the land shall be divided among the members of the community, and the rules laid down by the state to regulate this matter are of the first and highest importance in determining the civil condition of the country and the prosperity of the people. Whenever but one class among the people is privileged to have property in land a most exclusive oligarchy is formed.[7] When the land is held in small portions by a great number and nobody is legally or practically excluded from acquiring land, there we find provided the elements of democracy.

According to the strictest right of conquest in antiquity the defeated lost not only their personal freedom, their moveable and landed[8] property, but even life itself. All was at the mercy of the conquerors. In practice a modification of this right took place and in Rome extreme severity was applied only in extreme cases, generally as a punishment for treason.[9]

This magnanimity was not rare and it even went so far as to restore the whole of the territory to the people subdued.[10] But let us not suppose that this humanity toward a conquered people sprang from any pity inspired by their forlorn condition. It was due merely to the interest of the conquerors themselves. The conquered lands must still be cultivated and the depleted population restored. For this reason the conquered had generally not only life and freedom left them but also the means of livelihood, i.e. some portion of their land. This portion they held subject to no restrictions or services save those levied upon quiritarian property. It was private property to the full legal extent of the expression, thus being in the unlimited disposition of the individual.[11] These people formed the nucleus of the plebeians, the freemen who were members of the Roman state[12] without actually having any political rights.

The Ager Publicus was the property of the state and as such could be alienated only by the state.[13] This alienation could be accomplished in two ways:

(a). By public sale;

(b). By gratuitous distribution.

(a). The public sale was merely an auction to the highest bidder and in the later days of the monarchy and early part of the republic, rich plebeians must have become possessed of large tracts of land in this way; the privilege of acquiring property in land having been extended to them some time before the Servian reform.[14]

(b). The gratuitous distribution of land was accomplished by means of Agrarian Laws or royal grant and had for its object the establishment of colonies for purposes of defence, the rewarding of veterans or meritorious soldiers,[15] or in later times, the providing for impoverished plebeians.

But even in the earliest times a portion of the domain lands was excluded from sale or private appropriation,[16] in order to serve as a resource for the needs of the state.

This was the general usage of ancient republics and this maxim of reserved lands was recommended[17] by Aristotle as the first principle of political economy.

Such reserved ager publicus was leased either in periods of five years (quinquennial leaseholds) or perpetually, i.e. , by emphyteutic lease or copyhold. From these lands[18] the treasury received an income of from one-tenth to one-fifth of the annual crops.

Besides these legal methods mentioned there was another very common one which was seemingly never established by any law and therefore existed merely by title of tolerance. I speak of the indefinite possessio which was nothing but an occupation on the part of the patricians[19] of the land belonging to the state and was in nature quite similar to the so-called "squatting" commonly practiced in some of our western states and territories. The title to the enjoyment of the public lands was at first clearly vested in the patricians nor was this right extended to the plebeians until after they had been admitted to full citizenship. With regard to the state the