Argini e sbarramenti fluviali nell’Italia romana: regolamentazione, limiti e relativa interpretatio giurisprudenziale

Recent archaeological research has brought to light the frequency in central Italy of river barrages with the dual function of both irrigating the surrounding land and, where necessary, draining the excess water since the late Republican age and especially in mountainous areas. Faced with these data, one wonders which authority was legitimized, in the classical Roman age, to carry out such damming and diversion works on public rivers or streams (Roman magistrates, local magistrates, curatores aquarum citizens, curatores rei publicae and so on). Besides, one speculates whether, for example, private individuals willing to carry out the same kind of works for the benefit of their villae rusticae needed to request the local magistrates’ special permits (as it happens nowadays). And the same question goes whether those individuals had to ask the magistrates of Rome or, during the empire, some imperial officials for special permits when this kind of works were intended for taking place in the ager publicus populi Romani.