![]() ![]() Though the Plebeians had as good a right to occupy lands won by their aid as the Patricians, yet in the early times of the Republic this right was exercised by the latter alone, partly because they had the greater command of means and men, and partly because by the right of the stronger they excluded the Plebeians from benefiting by the Ager Publicus. It could be bequeathed or otherwise alienated, yet never became private property, but remained a rent-paying and resumable property of the State. Of uncultivated districts, the State, by public proclamation, gave a provisional right of seisin, occupatio, with a view to cultivation, in consideration of a tithe of the com raised and a fifth of the fruit, and reserving its right of resumption. The greater part was left to the old occupiers, yet not as free property, but as rent-paying land, and was called ager publicus stipendiarius datus assignatus the rest remained under State management, and was let by the Censors. In token of this it paid a substantial or merely nominal rent ( vectigal), and was called ager privatus vectigalisque or quaestorius. So far as this land was under culture, portions of it were sometimes assigned to single citizens or newly-founded colonies in fee simple, sometimes sold by the quaestors on the condition that, though the purchaser might bequeath and alienate it, it still remained State property. The Romans made a practice, upon every new acquisition of land, of adding a part of it, usually a third, to the domain. The Latin name for the State domains, formed of territory taken from conquered states. ![]()
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