Note 77 — Chapter IV

What the designation agri decumates (for the latter word is at anyrate to be connected with agri) occurring only in Tacitus, Germ. 29, means, is uncertain. It is possible that the territory regarded in the earlier imperial period certainly as property of the state or rather of the emperor, like the old ager occupatorius of the republic, might be used by the first who took possession upon payment of the tenth; but neither is it linguistically proved that decumas can mean “liable for a tenth,” nor are we acquainted with such arrangements in the imperial period. Moreover it should not be overlooked that the description of Tacitus refers to the time before the institution of the line of the Neckar; it does not suit the latter period any more than does the designation, which doubtless is not clear, but is at any rate certainly connected with the earlier legal relation.