AFFĪNES, AFFĪNĬTAS, or ADFĪNES, ADFĪNĬTAS. Affines are the cognati [[Cognati]] of husband and wife, the cognati of the husband becoming the affines of the wife, and the cognati of the wife the affines of the husband. The father of a husband is the socer of the husband’s wife, and the father of a wife is the socer of the wife’s husband. The term socrus expresses the same affinity with respect to the husband’s and wife’s mothers. A son’s wife is nurus, or daughter-in-law to the son’s parents; a wife’s husband is gener, or son-in-law to the wife’s parents. Thus the avus, avia—pater, mater—of the wife became by the marriage respectively the socer magnus, prosocrus, or socrus magna—socer, socrus—of the husband, who becomes with respect to them severally progener and gener. In like manner the corresponding ancestors of the husband respectively assume the same names with respect to the son’s wife, who becomes with respect to them pronurus and nurus. The son and daughter of a husband or wife born of a prior marriage are called privignus and privigna, with respect to their step-father or step-mother; and with respect to such children, the step-father and step-mother are severally called vitricus and noverca. The husband’s brother becomes levir with respect to the wife, and his sister becomes glos (the Greek γάλως). Marriage was unlawful among persons who had become such affines as above mentioned.

ĂGALMA (ἄγαλμα) is a general name for a statue or image to represent a god.

ĂGĀSO, a groom, whose business it was to take care of the horses. The word is also used for a driver of beasts of burden, and is sometimes applied to a slave who had to perform the lowest menial duties.

ĂGĂTHŎERGI (ἀγαθοεργοί). In time of war the kings of Sparta had a body-guard of three hundred of the noblest of the Spartan youths (ἱππεῖς), of whom the five eldest retired every year, and were employed for one year under the name of Agathoergi, in missions to foreign states.

ĂGĔLA (ἀγέλη), an assembly of young men in Crete, who lived together from their eighteenth year till the time of their marriage. An agela always consisted of the sons of the most noble citizens, and the members of it were obliged to marry at the same time.

ĂGĒMA (ἄγημα from ἄγω), the name of a chosen body of troops in the Macedonian army, usually consisting of horsemen.

ĂGER PUBLĬCUS, the public land, was the land belonging to the Roman state. It was a recognised principle among the Italian nations that the territory of a conquered people belonged to the conquerors. Accordingly, the Romans were constantly acquiring fresh territory by the conquest of the surrounding people. The land thus acquired was usually disposed of in the following way. 1. The land which was under cultivation was either distributed among colonists, who were sent to occupy it, or it was sold, or it was let out to farm. 2. The land which was then out of cultivation, and which, owing to war, was by far the greater part, might be occupied by any of the Roman citizens on the payment of a portion of the yearly produce; a tenth of the produce of arable land, and a fifth of the produce of the land planted with the vine, the olive, and other valuable trees. 3. The land which had previously served as the common pasture land of the conquered state, or was suitable for the purpose, continued to be used as pasture land by the Roman citizens, who had, however, to pay a certain sum of money for the cattle which they turned upon it. The occupation of the public land spoken of above under the second head was always expressed by the words possessio and possidere, and the occupier of the land was called the possessor. The land continued to be the property of the state; and accordingly we must distinguish between the terms possessio, which merely indicated the use or enjoyment of the land, and dominium, which expressed ownership, and was applied to private land, of which a man had the absolute ownership. The right of occupying the public land belonged only to citizens, and consequently only to the patricians originally, as they were the state. The plebeians were only subjects, and consequently had no right to the property of the state; but it is probable that they were permitted to feed their cattle on the public pasture lands. Even when the plebeians became a separate estate by the constitution of Servius Tullius, they still obtained no right to share in the possession of the public land, which continued to be the exclusive privilege of the patricians; but as a compensation, each individual plebeian received an assignment of a certain quantity of the public land as his own property. Henceforth the possession of the public land was the privilege of the patricians, and an assignment of a portion of it the privilege of the plebeians. As the state acquired new lands by conquest, the plebeians ought to have received assignments of part of them, but since the patricians were the governing body, they generally refused to make any such assignment, and continued to keep the whole as part of the ager publicus, whereby the enjoyment of it belonged to them alone. Hence, we constantly read of the plebeians claiming, and sometimes enforcing, a division of such land. With the extension of the conquests of Rome, the ager publicus constantly increased, and thus a large portion of Italy fell into the hands of the patricians, who frequently withheld from the state the annual payments of a tenth and a fifth, which they were bound to pay for the possession of the land, and thus deprived the state of a fund for the expenses of the war. In addition to which they used slaves as cultivators and shepherds, since freemen were liable to be drawn off from field-labour to military service, and slave-labour was consequently far cheaper. In this way the number of free labourers was diminished, and that of slaves augmented. To remedy this state of things several laws were from time to time proposed and carried, which were most violently opposed by the patricians. All laws which related to the public land are called by the general title of Leges Agrariae, and accordingly all the early laws relating to the possession of the public land by the patricians, and to the assignment of portions of it to the plebeians, were strictly agrarian laws; but the first law to which this name is usually applied was proposed soon after the establishment of the republic by the consul, Sp. Cassius, in B.C. 486. Its object was to set apart the portion of the public land which the patricians were to possess, to divide the rest among the plebeians, to levy the payment due for the possession, and to apply it to paying the army. The first law, however, which really deprived the patricians of the advantages they had previously enjoyed in the occupation of the public land was the agrarian law of C. Licinius Stolo (B.C. 366), which limited each individual’s possession of public land to 500 jugera, and declared that no individual should have above 100 large and 500 smaller cattle on the public pastures: it further enacted that the surplus land was to be divided among the plebeians. As this law, however, was soon disregarded, it was revived again by Tib. Sempronius Gracchus (B.C. 133), with some alterations and additions. The details of the other agrarian laws mentioned in Roman history are given under the name of the lex by which they are called. [[Lex].]

AGGER (χῶμα), from ad and gero, was used in general for a heap or mound of any kind. It was more particularly applied:—(1) To a mound, usually composed of earth, which was raised round a besieged town, and which was gradually increased in breadth and height, till it equalled or overtopped the walls. The agger was sometimes made, not only of earth, but of wood, hurdles, &c.; whence we read of the agger being set on fire.—(2) To the earthen wall surrounding a Roman encampment, composed of the earth dug from the ditch (fossa), which was usually 9 feet broad and 7 feet deep; but if any attack was apprehended, the depth was increased to 12 feet and the breadth to 13 feet. Sharp stakes, &c., were usually fixed upon the agger, which was then called vallum. When both words are used, the agger means the mound of earth, and the vallum the stakes, &c., which were fixed upon the agger.

ĂGITĀTŌRES. [[Circus].]

AGMEN. [[Exercitus].]