80

Two permanent elements, limitatio and the ratio of private holdings to public ones, underpinned landholding structures in Italy during the Roman Republic and have influenced Italian landscapes ever since. The conquest and ulterior fate of lands belonging to defeated peoples multiplied intermediary situations, which were neither private nor public, even if their former occupants did not lose all of their lands to full ownership by Roman citizens. Thus Latin colonies, which did not benefit from full citizenship, constituted an exceptional case, both in terms of the significant number of settlers and by the size of the landholdings thus granted. Moreover, some defeated individuals kept (or regained) possession of their lands. Although the Social War (90–88 BCE) and municipal reorganization brought about a restructuring of landholding law, they did not do away with the multiplicity of situations. As a result, limitatio did not become universally applicable. The variety of landholding situations as well as rights preexisting the Roman conquest were incorporated in the legal landholding rules enforceable in the colonies, in municipal or prefectoral areas as well as in oppida and fora.