[54] Geschichte der Markverfassung, 1856. The same theory has been reproduced with slight differences, and sometimes fresh exaggerations by Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte, 3 edit., I., pp. 125-131; Sohm, Reichs- und Gerichtsverfassung, pp. 117, 209-210.
[55] Cæsar, vi., 22.
[56] The expedition upon the right bank of the Rhine lasted only 18 days.
[57] Neque quisquam agri modum certum aut fines habet proprios; sed magistratus ac principes in annos singulos gentibus cognationibusque hominum qui una coierunt, quantum et quo loco visum est, agri attribuunt, atque anno post alio transire cogunt.
[58] Livy has been cited; but if those who have done so had first read him, they would have seen that every time that he wishes to speak of public land, he says ager publicus and not ager by itself. ii. 41: agrum publicum possideri a privatis criminabatur. ii. 61: Possessores agri publici. iv. 36: agris publicis. iv. 51: possesso per injuriam agro publico. iv. 53: possessione agri publici cederent. vi. 5: in possessione agri publici grassabantur, etc. That it sometimes happens that in a passage where he has written ager publicus, he afterwards writes ager without the adjective, is natural enough. If he speaks in one place of triumvirum agro dando or de agris dividendis plebi, he has no need to add the adjective which is obviously understood. In chapter xxxv. of book vi. he speaks of the lex Licinia “de modo agrorum,” i.e., as to the maximum size of rural properties. It has been conjectured that he made a mistake, and that he meant to speak of the ager publicus; but this is very doubtful. Varro, de re rustica 1, 2, and Columella, 1, 3, understand the law as Livy does; they see in it a limitation of property in general. I cannot, therefore, agree with M. d’Arbois de Jubainville, who interprets de modo agrorum, as if it were de modo agri publici. We must translate literally, and not change the sense.
[59] See the Lex dicta Thoria, in the Corpus inscriptionum latinarum, I., p. 79: “Qui ager publicus populi romani fuit ... ager privatus esto, ejusque agri emptio venditio uti ceterorum agrorum privatorum esto.”
[60] Javolenus, in the Digest, 50, 16, 115: “Possessio ab agro juris proprietate distat; quidquid enim adprehendimus cujus proprietas ad nos non pertinet, hoc possessionem appellamus; possessio ergo usus, ager proprietas loci est.” Notice that this idea of property is found even in the expression ager publicus, which does not at all mean common land; it means the property of the state, the public domain. If Maurer and his German or French disciples had known Latin or Roman institutions a little better, they would never have identified the ager publicus with the allmend.
[61] As to the synonymous character of these two words, see Varro, De re rustica, 1, 4, where both are used for the same thing; for another example, see ibidem, iii. 2. Similarly Columella, 1, 2 and 1, 4, pp. 27 and 33 of the bipontine edition.
[62] Paul, in the Digest, xviii. 1, 40.
[63] Digest, L., 16, 211.