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.