On the Margins of Civic Territories in Roman Italy: Defining, Shifting and Locating Boundaries

When studying the territory of the Roman communities, recognising the ancient rules used for establishing borders is of the utmost importance. Closely linked to this topic is also the question of which criteria may be used by modern scholars in order to identify – or at least suppose with a good degree of certainty – the boundaries of a land belonging to a particular community. Among these criteria, the possible identification of some pagi as witnesses of areas located at the borders of civic lands has rarely been taken into account. Through the analysis of some case studies from Italy and the Western Provinces, this paper aims to point out the widespread presence of territories belonging to pagi at the border between two or more communities.