Ager PublicusAger Publicus....means public land. That means, of course, since it was everyone's land, that the Romans had to fight over who it belonged to. Here is a most excellent website explaining all of this into much fuller detail than I am capable of: John's Hopkins Ager Publicus Explanation What's that? You're dying to hear more about the Ager Publicus? Well, you're sounding more Roman already!
OK, so we all know that the Romans love to conquer, kill, maim, whatever their ancestors did, to get what they want. And that is exactly how they attained Ager Publicus or, land of the State - by conquest. The Romans were so powerful that towns would actually surrender themselves up as Ager Publicus for fear of the death and destruction that Roman conquest brought with it. Some Roman guy once said, "The soil of the country is not the product of labor any more than is water or air. Individual citizens cannot therefore lay any claim to lawful property in land as to anything produced by their own hands." All public lands prior to being sold to private individuals was considered Ager Publicus. The land was won either by being the highest bidder in a land auction, or by somehow weasling a royal grant out of the Senate. These private individuals HAD to be a citizen of Rome in order to acquire any of this land. According to the strictest right of conquest, or our favorite Mos Maiorum, the conquered lost not only their personal freedom, their property, but even life itself. All was at the mercy of the conquerors. In time, a modification of this right came about and in Rome this severity was applied only in extreme cases, usually as a punishment for treason. However, some of the land was prohibited from sale and set aside for the State, in case they ever needed to build something or have a toga keg party where the cops couldn't find them, as recommended by Aristotle himself. Sometimes patricians would simply take over and inhabit land from the Ager Publicus that they felt like using for their own parties. | 