Objective Every aspect of the ancient world depended on the control and exploitation of the countryside, but scholars have until recently failed to engage with an abundant and detailed material on the subject: the legal texts of the Digest. The thought of the Roman jurists constituted a powerful model for all the minor and local institutions and legal documentation reveals not only rules, but also actual practices and issues of unquestionable historical interest. Amongst the significant amount of legal texts concerning the countryside, the issues of water sharing and that of erosion and flood risks management are particularly well represented, constituting a key element of an essential aspect of the ancient economy, i.e. the agricultural production. However, an overall underestimation has led to a serious insufficiency of methodology concerning these texts, an evident obstacle to its exploitation in a historical perspective. This research proposes to demonstrate how relevant the study of Roman law is for our knowledge of the Roman countryside, by confronting the strikingly unexplored jurisprudential documentation with more traditionally exploited archaeological and environmental sources. The focus on water control is motivated by a will to concentrate on a crucial condition of the exploitation of the countryside, which has raised sufficient interest from the ancient jurists themselves, as well as from the scholars in the past decades, so as to generate enough primary and secondary sources for us to consider. The objective is twofold: first, to establish a clear and consistent methodology for the historical study of the jurisprudential sources; second, to apply it to case studies in order to produce new insights into a fundamental issue of the Roman world. Fields of science social sciencespolitical sciencespolitical policiespublic policiessocial sciencessociologygovernancecrisis managementflood risk managementnatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesphysical geographynatural disasterssocial sciencessociologygovernancecrisis managementseismic risk managementsocial scienceslaw Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2016 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2016 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF Coordinator THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Net EU contribution € 195 454,80 Address Wellington square university offices OX1 2JD Oxford United Kingdom See on map Region South East (England) Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Oxfordshire Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00
