Roman Republic At the foundation of a
colony and the assignation of lands the
auspices were taken, for which purpose the presence of the
augur was necessary. But the business of the augur did not extend beyond the religious part of the ceremony: the division and measurement of the land were made by professional measurers. These were the
finitores mentioned by the early writers, who in the later periods were called
mensores and
agrimensores. The business of a
finitor could only be done by a free man, and the honourable nature of his office is indicated by the rule that there was no bargain for his services, but he received his pay in the form of a gift. These
finitores appear also to have acted as
judices, under the name of
arbitri (single
arbiter), in those disputes about boundaries which were purely of a technical, not a legal, character. The first professional surveyor mentioned is
Lucius Decidius Saxa, who was employed by
Mark Antony in the measurement of camps. but the professors of geometry and the teachers of law were not exempted from the obligation of being
tutores, and from other such burdens, a fact which shows the subordinate rank which the teachers of elementary science then held. The
agrimensor could mark out the limits of the
centuriae, and restore the boundaries where they were confused, but he could not assign without a commission from the emperor. Military persons of various classes are also sometimes mentioned as practising surveying, and settling disputes about boundaries. The lower rank of the professional
agrimensor, as contrasted with the
finitor of earlier periods, is shown by the fact that in the imperial period there might be a contract with an
agrimensor for paying him for his services.
Late empire The
agrimensor of the later period was merely employed in disputes as to the boundaries of properties. The foundation of colonies and the assignation of lands were now less common, though we read of colonies being established to a late period of the empire, and the boundaries of the lands must have been set out in due form. Those who marked out the ground in camps for the soldiers' tents are also called
mensores, but they were military men. The functions of the
agrimensor are shown by a passage of
Hyginus, in all questions as to determining boundaries by means of the marks (
signa), the area of surfaces, and explaining maps and plans, the services of the
agrimensor were required: in all questions that concerned property, right of road, enjoyment of water, and other easements (
servitutes) they were not required, for these were purely legal questions. Generally, therefore, they were either employed by the parties themselves to settle boundaries, or they received their instructions for that purpose from a
judex. In this capacity they were
advocati. But they also acted as
judices, and could give a final decision in that class of smaller questions which concerned the
quinque pedes of the Lex Mamilia (the law setting which boundary spaces were not subject to
usucapio), as appears from Frontinus. Under the
Christian emperors the name
mensores was changed into
agrimensores to distinguish them from another class of
mensores, who are mentioned in the codes of
Theodosius I and
Justinian I. By a
rescript of
Constantine I and
Constans (344 AD) the teachers and learners of geometry received immunity from civil burdens. According to a constitution of
Theodosius II and
Valentinian III (440 AD), they received jurisdiction in questions of
alluvio; but some writers disagree that this crucial passage is genuine. the young
agrimensores were to be called "clarissimi" while they were students, and when they began to practise their profession, "spectabiles". ==Writers and works==