- Jugerum
_la. Jugerum or _la. jugus (the latter form, as a neuter noun of the third declension, is very common in the oblique cases and in the plural) was a Roman
unit of measurement ofarea , convert|240|ft|m in length and 120 in breadth, containing therefore 28,800 square feet (Colum. R. R. v.i § 6; Quintil. i.18).It was the double of the _la.
Actus Quadratus , and from this circumstance, according to some writers, it derived its name (Varro, L. L. v.35, Müller, R. R. i.10). [Actus.] It seems probable that, as the word was evidently originally the same as _la. jugus or _la. jugum, ayoke , and as _la. actus, in its original use, meant a path wide enough to drive a single beast along, that _la. jugerum originally meant a path wide enough for a yoke of oxen, namely, the double of the _la. actus in width; and that when _la. actus quadratos was used for a square measure of surface, the _la. jugerum, by a natural analogy, became the double of the _la. actus quadratus; and that this new meaning of it superseded its old use as the double of the single _la. actus.The uncial division
As was applied to the _la. jugerum, its smallest part being the _la.scrupulum of convert|10|ft|m square = convert|100|sqft|m2. Thus the _la. jugerum contained 288 _la. scrupula (Varro, R. R. l.c.). The _la. jugerum was the common measure of land among the Romans. Two _la. jugera formed an _la.heredium , a hundred heredia acenturia , and four _la. centuriae a _la.saltus . These divisions were derived from the original assignment of landed property, in which two _la. jugera were given to each citizen as heritable property (Varro, l.c.; Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. ii pp156, &c., and Appendix ii.).ee also
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Ancient Roman units of measurement References
*"This article includes public domain material from
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1842)"
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