Rusticus i rusticitas Wieś i wieśniacy w tekstach prawa rzymskiego

Abstract

The article discusses the main problems in regard to rural lands and peasants on the basis of primary sources on Roman private law. Roman law regulated signifi cant aspects of rural economy which tend to be overlooked by historians and philologists dealing with Roman agronomic literature, including rural lands in Italia (praedia rustica) as basic constituents (res mancipi) of Roman farms, farm slaves known as familia rustica, farm quadrupeds and rural servitudes (servitutes praediorum rusticorum), i.e. the right of foot passage (iter), the right of driving carriages (via), the right of driving cattle (actus) and the right of carrying water (aquaeductus). The term rusticitas is also used in the texts of Roman law to denote rural simplicity and ineptitude particularly as regards legal matters. Therefore, rusticitas was accepted as suff icient justifi cation for ignorance of the law, contrary to the ignorantia iuris nocet principle. The reason for that was indeed the rural simplicity, limited access to the law and a high illiteracy rate in rural areas.