Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Documents

The road is private from the public highway, through the garden, attached to the monument (or “tomb”), which Agathopus, freedman of Augustus, a herald, and Iunia Epictesis made while still alive. Let trickery and civil law be away from all these. Private road of Annius Largus. Antonius Astralis uses it by permission. The lower road is the private property of Titus Umbrenus, son of Gaius. Passage is by permission. Let no one lead a herd or plow. Rights to pass on foot or driving to the well and drawing of water from the Rutilian aqueduct outside the city come with purchase of this. Servitudes could be claimed by appeal to past use and lost • by disuse. Hence the need to have posted notices to claim their existence (a, c, m). It was also important to specify that passage over private property was “by permission” (f, i) so that habitual use did not give rise to a permanent servitude. The third and fourth texts mention particular individuals, • but (as the fifth one illustrates), servitudes were actually tied to the land. Servitudes granted only rights broad enough to achieve • their basic purpose, so when the first text specifies that the shortest route must be taken by those going from the main road to the grove, it is just spelling out something the law already implied.

260