Deserti agriGIANLUCA SORICELLI

Agri deserti, deserted lands, are a recurrent

topic in late Roman literary and legal sources.

From as early as the third century, Christian

and pagan writers wrote about the flight of the

peasants from the countryside and the loss of

productivity of the land, but these witnesses

may be affected by their “ideological” senti-

ments. Bishop Cyprian, among his other

woes, complained about the infertility of the

countryside and the flight of the peasants

(ad Demetrianum 3–5). He wrote about the

rich province of Africa, one of the main

productive areas of the empire. Some decades

later Libanius claimed that heavy taxation had

resulted in the abandonment of the land (Or. 2,

32): he was writing from the region of Antioch,

where archaeology suggests an important eco-

nomic “boom” destined to continue through

to the middle of the sixth century (Whittaker

1976; Tate 1992).

According to legal sources (Jaillette 1996),

agri deserti referred to agricultural areas subject

to taxation from which it was no longer possi-

ble to collect the tax. The first provision known

on such land dates back to the emperor

Aurelian, but it is possible that there were

measures passed previously (cf. Hdt. 2.4.6

regarding a measure of Pertinax). Aurelian

stated that the members of the city councils

took on the responsibility for abandoned

land and estates (fundi) for which it was impos-

sible to trace the owners. Constantine renewed

this law, adding that such land would be exempt

from taxes for the first three years and, where

city councils were unable to maintain it, the tax

obligations of abandoned land should be distrib-

uted among all landowners (CJ 11.59.1). The

subsequent laws seem to point in the

same direction and reflect more the emperor’s

wish to guarantee his fiscal revenue than any

intention to boost the productivity of the land.

The archaeological evidence (Duncan-Jones

2004) suggests a decrease in rural settlement in

Italy (cfr.CT 11.28.2 [395 CE], equivalent to

an area of deserted land in the province of

Campania of 528,042 iugera (about 1,320 km

sq, or 10–15 percent of presumable arable

areas)) and in the Rhine provinces, but an

increase in Africa and in the eastern provinces.

It is important to note that the number of

settlements continued to grow in Africa at least

until the end of the fifth century. This seems

inconsistent withCT 11.28.13 (422), a measure

concerning imperial lands in Africa

Proconsularis and Byzacena, according to

which almost half of the land was deserted

and excluded from taxation. This is a dramatic

figure, but the ratio of cropland to fallow land

is very close to modern agricultural statistics

for the region corresponding to the two

Roman provinces (Lepelley 1967).

The elusive nature of the sources available

explains the deep division among modern

scholars regarding the exact meaning of agri

deserti. In the past they were often believed to

be proof of a long and deep crisis of late impe-

rial agriculture, determined bymultiple factors

(see Jones 1964: 816–23). In order to remedy

the crisis and encourage once again the cul-

tivation of abandoned land, the central

government took a series of legislative measures

(of which see also the institution of the COLONATE

and, with respect to imperial property, the

emphyteusis). These measures did not produce

concrete results, as the law was frequently put

forth again (Jaillette 1996: 334–8). Without

denying that the central decades of the third

century were years of crisis, a different inter-

pretation of the phenomenon states that the

depopulation of the countryside was less dra-

matic than initially thought. Archaeology also

suggests that the fourth century, far from being

the culmination of the crisis, saw in many

provincial areas a growing rural landscape.

Agri deserti in this context represent the mar-

ginal land, scarcely fertile, periodically unused

and, depending on circumstances, undervalued

by its owners or abandoned in order to concen-

trate on more fertile soils (this must be the case

in Italy, where the new fiscal regime imposed by

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,

and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 2049–2051.

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah06096

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Diocletian drove marginal land out of use)

(Whittaker and Garnsey 1998: 281–5). They

therefore represented a fiscal rather than an

agricultural problem (Grey 2007: 363), as the

efforts of the emperor to guarantee the taxes

would demonstrate.

SEE ALSO: Agriculture, Roman Empire; Finance,

Roman; Landscapes, Roman; Taxation, Roman.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Duncan-Jones, R. (2004) “Economic change and

the transition to Late Antiquity.” In S. Swain and

M. Edwards, eds., Approaching Late Antiquity:

the transformation from early to late empire:

20–49. Oxford and New York.

Grey, C. (2007) “Revisiting the ‘problem’ of agri

deserti in late Roman Empire.” Journal of Roman

Archaeology 20: 362–76.

Jaillette, P. (1996) “Les dispositions du Code

Theodosien sur les terres abbandonnees.” In

J.-L. Fiches, ed., Le IIIe siecle en Gaule

Narbonnaise: donnees regionales sur la crise de

l’Empire: 333–404. Aix-en-Provence.

Jones, A. H. M. (1964) The later Roman Empire,

284–602: a social, economic, and administrative

survey. Oxford.

Lepelley, Cl. (1967) “Declin ou stabilite de

l’agriculture africaine au Bas-Empire? A propos

d’une loi de l’empereur Honorius.” Antiquites

Africaines 1:135–44 (reprinted in Aspects de

l’Afrique romaine. Les cites, la vie rurale, le

christianisme: 217–32. Bari, 2001).

Tate, G. (1992) Les campagnes de la Syrie du Nord

du IIe au VIIe siecle: un example d’expansion

demographique et economique dans les campagnes

a la fin de l’antiquite. Paris.

Whittaker, C. R. (1976) “Agri deserti.” In M. I.

Finley, ed., Studies in Roman property, 137–65;

193–200. Cambridge (reprinted in Land, city

and trade in the Roman Empire. Aldershot, 1993).

Whittaker, C. R. and Garnsey, P. (1998) “Rural life

in the later Roman Empire.” In Cambridge

ancient history, vol. 13: 277–311. 2nd ed.

Cambridge.

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