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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gromatici | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gromatici | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:32:06.495473+00:00 | kb-cron |
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 Urbicus, a Christian schoolmaster. Under Trajan a certain Balbus, who had accompanied the emperor on his Dacian 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). The 1913 edition of Carl Olof Thulin contains only a few works. The 2000 edition of Brian Campbell is much broader and also contains an English translation.
== See also == Bematist Triangulation (surveying)#History
== References ==
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Groma". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: John Murray.
== Further reading ==
Campbell, Brian. 1996. "Shaping the Rural Environment: Surveyors in Ancient Rome." Journal of Roman Studies 86:74–99. Campbell, J. B. 2000. The Writings of the Roman Land Surveyors: Introduction, Text, Translation and Commentary. London: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. Classen, C. Joachim. 1994. "On the Training of the Agrimensores in Republican Rome and Related Problems: Some Preliminary Observations." Illinois Classical Studies 19:161-170. Cuomo, Serafina. 2000. "Divide and Rule: Frontinus and Roman Land-Surveying." Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 31A:189–202. Dilke, Oswald Ashton Wentworth. 1967. "Illustrations from Roman Surveyors’ Manuals." Imago Mundi 21:9–29. Dilke, Oswald Ashton Wentworth. 1971. The Roman Land Surveyors: An Introduction to the Agrimensores. Newton Abbot, UK: David and Charles. Duncan-Jones, R. P. 1976. "Some Configurations of Landholding in the Roman Empire." In Studies in Roman Property. Edited by M. I. Finley, 7–24. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. Gargola, Daniel J. 1995. Lands, Laws and Gods: Magistrates and Ceremony in the Regulation of Public Lands in Republican Rome. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press. Lewis, Michael Jonathan Taunton. 2001. Surveying Instruments of Greece and Rome. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. Nicolet, Claude. 1991. "Control of the Fiscal Sphere: The Cadastres." In Space, Geography, and Politics in the Early Roman Empire. By Claude Nicolet, 149–169. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.