Gromatici
Encyclopedia
Gromatici or agrimensores, was the name for land-surveyors amongst the ancient Romans
. The "gromatic writers" were technical writers
who codified their techniques of surveying.
and the assignation of lands the auspice
s were taken, for which purpose the presence of the augur
was necessary. But the business of the augur did not extend beyond the religious part of the ceremony: the division and measurement of the land were made by professional measurers. These were the finitores mentioned in the early writers, who in the later periods were called mensores and agrimensores. The business of a finitor could only be done by a free man, and the honorable nature of his office is indicated by the rule that there was no bargain for his services, but he received his pay in the form of a gift. These finitores appear also to have acted as judices
, under the name of arbitri (sing. arbiter), in those disputes about boundaries which were purely of a technical, not a legal, character. The first professional surveyor mentioned is Lucius Decidius Saxa, who was employed by Mark Antony
in the measurement of camps.
the observance of the auspice
s in the fixing of camps and the establishment of military colonies was less regarded, and the practice of the agrimensores was greatly increased. The distribution of land amongst the veterans, the increase in the number of military colonies, the settlement of Italian peasants in the provinces, the general survey of the empire under Augustus, the separation of private and state domains, led to the establishment of a recognized professional corporation of surveyors. The practice was also codified as a system by technical writers
such as Julius Frontinus
, Hyginus
, Siculus Flaccus
, and other Gromatic writers, as they are sometimes termed. The teachers of geometry
in the large cities of the empire used to give practical instruction on the system of gromatics. This practical geometry was one of the liberalia studia; but the professors of geometry and the teachers of law were not exempted from the obligation of being tutores, and from other such burdens, a fact which shows the subordinate rank which the teachers of elementary science then held.
The agrimensor could mark out the limits of the centuria
e, and restore the boundaries where they were confused, but he could not assign without a commission from the emperor. Military persons of various classes are also sometimes mentioned as practising surveying, and settling disputes about boundaries. The lower rank of the professional agrimensor, as contrasted with the finitor of earlier periods, is shown by the fact that in the imperial period thare might be a contract with an agrimensor for paying him for his services.
, in all questions as to determining boundaries by means of the marks (signa), the area of surfaces, and explaining maps and plans, the services of the agrimensor were required: in all questions that concerned property, right of road, enjoyment of water, and other easements (servitutes) they were not required, for these were purely legal questions.
Generally, therefore, they were either employed by the parties themselves to settle boundaries, or they received their instructions for that purpose from a judex
. In this capacity they were advocati
. But they also acted as judices, and could give a final decision in that class of smaller questions which concerned the quinque pedes of the Lex Mamilia (the law setting which boundary spaces were not subject to usucapio), as appears from Frontinus.
Under the Christian
emperors the name mensores was changed into agrimensores to distinguish them from another class of mensores, who are mentioned in the codes of Theodosius I
and Justinian I
. By a rescript
of Constantine I
and Constans
(344 AD) the teachers and learners of geometry received immunity from civil burdens. According to a constitution of Theodosius II
and Valentinian III
(440 AD), they received jurisdiction in questions of alluvio; but some writers disagree that this crucial passage is genuine.
According to another constitution of the same emperors, the agrimensor was to receive an aureus
from each of any three bordering proprietors whose boundaries he settled, and if he set a limes
right between proprietors, he received an aureus for each twelfth part of the property through which fee restored the limes. Further, by another constitution of the same emperors, the young agrimensores were to be called "clarissimi" while they were students, and when they began to practise their profession, "spectabiles".
, a Christian schoolmaster. Under Trajan
a certain Balbus, who had accompanied the emperor on his Dacia
n campaign, wrote a still extant manual of geometry for land surveyors (Expositio et ratio omnium formarum or mensurarum, probably after a Greek
original by Hero
), dedicated to a certain Celsus who had invented an improvement in a gromatic instrument (perhaps the dioptra
, resembling the modern theodolite
); for the treatises of Hyginus
see that name.
Somewhat later than Trajan
was Siculus Flaccus
(De condicionibus agrorum, extant), while the most curious treatise on the subject, written in barbarous Latin
and entitled Casae litterarum (long a school textbook) is the work of a certain Innocentius (4th-5th century). It is doubtful whether Boetius
is the author of the treatises attributed to him. The Gromatici veteres also contains extracts from official registers (probably belonging to the 5th century) of colonial and other land surveys, lists and descriptions of boundary stones, and extracts from the Theodosian Codex.
According to Mommsen
, the collection had its origin during the 5th century in the office of a vicarius (diocesan governor) of Rome, who had a number of surveyors under him. The surveyors were known by various names: decempedator (with reference to the instrument used); finitor, metator or mensor castrorum in republican times; togati Augustorum as imperial civil officials; professor, auctor as professional instructors.
The best edition of the Gromatici is by Karl Lachmann
and others (1848) with supplementary volume, Die Schriften der römischen Feldmesser (1852); see also B.G. Niebuhr
, Roman History, ii., appendix (Eng. trans.), who first revived interest in the subject; M. Cantor, Die römischen Agrimensoren (Leipzig, 1875); P. de Tissot, La Condition des Agrimensores dans l'ancienne Rome (1879); G. Rossi, Groma e squadro (Turin, 1877); articles by F. Hultsch in Ersch and Gruber's Allgem. Encyklopädie, and by G. Humbert in Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire des antiquites; Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature, 58.
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
. The "gromatic writers" were technical writers
Technical writing
Technical writing, a form of technical communication, is a style of writing used in fields as diverse as computer hardware and software, engineering, chemistry, the aerospace industry, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology....
who codified their techniques of surveying.
Roman Republic
At the foundation of a colonyColony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
and the assignation of lands the auspice
Auspice
An auspice is literally "one who looks at birds", a diviner who reads omens from the observed flight of birds...
s were taken, for which purpose the presence of the augur
Augur
The augur was a priest and official in the classical world, especially ancient Rome and Etruria. His main role was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds: whether they are flying in groups/alone, what noises they make as they fly, direction of flight and what kind of...
was necessary. But the business of the augur did not extend beyond the religious part of the ceremony: the division and measurement of the land were made by professional measurers. These were the finitores mentioned in the early writers, who in the later periods were called mensores and agrimensores. The business of a finitor could only be done by a free man, and the honorable nature of his office is indicated by the rule that there was no bargain for his services, but he received his pay in the form of a gift. These finitores appear also to have acted as judices
Judex
Judex is the title of a 1916 silent French movie serial concerning the adventures of Judex who is a pulp hero, similar to The Shadow, created by Louis Feuillade and Arthur Bernède.-Concept:...
, under the name of arbitri (sing. arbiter), in those disputes about boundaries which were purely of a technical, not a legal, character. The first professional surveyor mentioned is Lucius Decidius Saxa, who was employed by Mark Antony
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...
in the measurement of camps.
Roman Empire
Under the empireRoman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
the observance of the auspice
Auspice
An auspice is literally "one who looks at birds", a diviner who reads omens from the observed flight of birds...
s in the fixing of camps and the establishment of military colonies was less regarded, and the practice of the agrimensores was greatly increased. The distribution of land amongst the veterans, the increase in the number of military colonies, the settlement of Italian peasants in the provinces, the general survey of the empire under Augustus, the separation of private and state domains, led to the establishment of a recognized professional corporation of surveyors. The practice was also codified as a system by technical writers
Technical writing
Technical writing, a form of technical communication, is a style of writing used in fields as diverse as computer hardware and software, engineering, chemistry, the aerospace industry, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology....
such as Julius Frontinus
Sextus Julius Frontinus
Sextus Julius Frontinus was one of the most distinguished Roman aristocrats of the late 1st century AD, but is best known to the post-Classical world as an author of technical treatises, especially one dealing with the aqueducts of Rome....
, Hyginus
Gaius Julius Hyginus
Gaius Julius Hyginus was a Latin author, a pupil of the famous Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was by Augustus elected superintendent of the Palatine library according to Suetonius' De Grammaticis, 20...
, Siculus Flaccus
Siculus Flaccus
Siculus Flaccus was an ancient Roman gromaticus , and writer in Latin on land surveying. His work was included in a collection of gromatic treatises in the 6th century AD....
, and other Gromatic writers, as they are sometimes termed. The teachers of geometry
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
in the large cities of the empire used to give practical instruction on the system of gromatics. This practical geometry was one of the liberalia studia; but the professors of geometry and the teachers of law were not exempted from the obligation of being tutores, and from other such burdens, a fact which shows the subordinate rank which the teachers of elementary science then held.
The agrimensor could mark out the limits of the centuria
Centuria
Centuria is a Latin substantive from the stem centum , denoting units consisting of 100 men. It also denotes a Roman unit of land area: 1 centuria = 100 heredia...
e, and restore the boundaries where they were confused, but he could not assign without a commission from the emperor. Military persons of various classes are also sometimes mentioned as practising surveying, and settling disputes about boundaries. The lower rank of the professional agrimensor, as contrasted with the finitor of earlier periods, is shown by the fact that in the imperial period thare might be a contract with an agrimensor for paying him for his services.
Late Empire
The agrimensor of the later period was merely employed in disputes as to the boundaries of properties. The foundation of colonies and the assignation of lands were now less common, though we read of colonies being established to a late period of the empire, and the boundaries of the lands must have been set out in due form. Those who marked out the ground in camps for the soldiers' tents are also called mensores, but they were military men. The functions of the agrimensor are shown by a passage of HyginusGaius Julius Hyginus
Gaius Julius Hyginus was a Latin author, a pupil of the famous Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was by Augustus elected superintendent of the Palatine library according to Suetonius' De Grammaticis, 20...
, in all questions as to determining boundaries by means of the marks (signa), the area of surfaces, and explaining maps and plans, the services of the agrimensor were required: in all questions that concerned property, right of road, enjoyment of water, and other easements (servitutes) they were not required, for these were purely legal questions.
Generally, therefore, they were either employed by the parties themselves to settle boundaries, or they received their instructions for that purpose from a judex
Judex
Judex is the title of a 1916 silent French movie serial concerning the adventures of Judex who is a pulp hero, similar to The Shadow, created by Louis Feuillade and Arthur Bernède.-Concept:...
. In this capacity they were advocati
Advocatus
An advocatus, or advocate, was generally a medieval term meaning "lawyer". The term was also used in continental Europe as the title of the lay lord charged with the protection and representation in secular matters of an abbey, known more fully as an advocatus ecclesiae.-Middle Ages:The office is...
. But they also acted as judices, and could give a final decision in that class of smaller questions which concerned the quinque pedes of the Lex Mamilia (the law setting which boundary spaces were not subject to usucapio), as appears from Frontinus.
Under the Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
emperors the name mensores was changed into agrimensores to distinguish them from another class of mensores, who are mentioned in the codes of Theodosius I
Theodosius I
Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...
and Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
. By a rescript
Rescript
A rescript is a document that is issued not on the initiative of the author, but in response to a specific demand made by its addressee...
of Constantine I
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
and Constans
Constans
Constans , was Roman Emperor from 337 to 350. He defeated his brother Constantine II in 340, but anger in the army over his personal life and preference for his barbarian bodyguards saw the general Magnentius rebel, resulting in Constans’ assassination in 350.-Career:Constans was the third and...
(344 AD) the teachers and learners of geometry received immunity from civil burdens. According to a constitution of Theodosius II
Theodosius II
Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...
and Valentinian III
Valentinian III
-Family:Valentinian was born in the western capital of Ravenna, the only son of Galla Placidia and Flavius Constantius. The former was the younger half-sister of the western emperor Honorius, and the latter was at the time Patrician and the power behind the throne....
(440 AD), they received jurisdiction in questions of alluvio; but some writers disagree that this crucial passage is genuine.
According to another constitution of the same emperors, the agrimensor was to receive an aureus
Aureus
The aureus was a gold coin of ancient Rome valued at 25 silver denarii. The aureus was regularly issued from the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 4th century, when it was replaced by the solidus...
from each of any three bordering proprietors whose boundaries he settled, and if he set a limes
Limes
A limes was a border defense or delimiting system of Ancient Rome. It marked the boundaries of the Roman Empire.The Latin noun limes had a number of different meanings: a path or balk delimiting fields, a boundary line or marker, any road or path, any channel, such as a stream channel, or any...
right between proprietors, he received an aureus for each twelfth part of the property through which fee restored the limes. Further, by another constitution of the same emperors, the young agrimensores were to be called "clarissimi" while they were students, and when they began to practise their profession, "spectabiles".
Writers and works
The earliest of the gromatic writers was Frontinus, whose De agrorum qualitate, dealing with the legal aspect of the art, was the subject of a commentary by Aggenus UrbicusAggenus Urbicus
Aggenus Urbicus was an ancient Roman technical writer on the science of the Agrimensores, that is, land surveying. It is uncertain when he lived; but he appears to have been a Christian, and it is not improbable from some expressions which he uses, that he lived at the latter part of the 4th...
, a Christian schoolmaster. Under Trajan
Trajan
Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
a certain Balbus, who had accompanied the emperor on his Dacia
Dacia
In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...
n campaign, wrote a still extant manual of geometry for land surveyors (Expositio et ratio omnium formarum or mensurarum, probably after a Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
original by Hero
Hero of Alexandria
Hero of Alexandria was an ancient Greek mathematician and engineerEnc. Britannica 2007, "Heron of Alexandria" who was active in his native city of Alexandria, Roman Egypt...
), dedicated to a certain Celsus who had invented an improvement in a gromatic instrument (perhaps the dioptra
Dioptra
A dioptra is a classical astronomical and surveying instrument, dating from the 3rd century BCE. The dioptra was a sighting tube or, alternatively, a rod with a sight at both ends, attached to a stand...
, resembling the modern theodolite
Theodolite
A theodolite is a precision instrument for measuring angles in the horizontal and vertical planes. Theodolites are mainly used for surveying applications, and have been adapted for specialized purposes in fields like metrology and rocket launch technology...
); for the treatises of Hyginus
Hyginus Gromaticus
Hyginus Gromaticus, was a Latin writer on land-surveying, who flourished in the reign of Trajan . Fragments of a work on legal boundaries attributed to him will be found in C. F. Lachmann, Gromatici Veteres, i...
see that name.
Somewhat later than Trajan
Trajan
Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
was Siculus Flaccus
Siculus Flaccus
Siculus Flaccus was an ancient Roman gromaticus , and writer in Latin on land surveying. His work was included in a collection of gromatic treatises in the 6th century AD....
(De condicionibus agrorum, extant), while the most curious treatise on the subject, written in barbarous Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and entitled Casae litterarum (long a school textbook) is the work of a certain Innocentius (4th-5th century). It is doubtful whether Boetius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius was a philosopher of the early 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls. His father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul in 487 after...
is the author of the treatises attributed to him. The Gromatici veteres also contains extracts from official registers (probably belonging to the 5th century) of colonial and other land surveys, lists and descriptions of boundary stones, and extracts from the Theodosian Codex.
According to Mommsen
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research...
, the collection had its origin during the 5th century in the office of a vicarius (diocesan governor) of Rome, who had a number of surveyors under him. The surveyors were known by various names: decempedator (with reference to the instrument used); finitor, metator or mensor castrorum in republican times; togati Augustorum as imperial civil officials; professor, auctor as professional instructors.
The best edition of the Gromatici is by Karl Lachmann
Karl Lachmann
Karl Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Lachmann was a German philologist and critic.-Biography:He was born in Brunswick, in what is now Lower Saxony....
and others (1848) with supplementary volume, Die Schriften der römischen Feldmesser (1852); see also B.G. Niebuhr
Barthold Georg Niebuhr
Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a Danish-German statesman and historian who became Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. Classical Rome caught the admiration of German thinkers...
, Roman History, ii., appendix (Eng. trans.), who first revived interest in the subject; M. Cantor, Die römischen Agrimensoren (Leipzig, 1875); P. de Tissot, La Condition des Agrimensores dans l'ancienne Rome (1879); G. Rossi, Groma e squadro (Turin, 1877); articles by F. Hultsch in Ersch and Gruber's Allgem. Encyklopädie, and by G. Humbert in Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire des antiquites; Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature, 58.