Page:Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire (1926, Abbot and Johnson, municipaladminis00abbo).pdf/35

 produce which the tenant should pay as rental, and in fixing the number of days labor which the conductor might require of the tenant. In case of dispute on such points the matter was referred to the procurator saltus, or was carried up to the emperor or his deputy, the procurator tractus. The same method of appeal was followed if the fundamental law was violated. Thus the tenants on the saltus Burunitanus complain that they are required to give more than six days' labor each year to the conductor, that the conductor is very wealthy and has secured the support of the procurator of the estate , and that they have been flogged and maltreated by soldiers, although some of them are Roman citizens. In the case of such petitions as this the emperor caused his decision to be engraved on a tablet and to be placed where it could be seen by all the tenants.

Within the limitations of, and in accordance with, the forms imposed by the statute and by subsequent decisions of the emperor, the procurator was the administrative and judicial officer of the domain. It it his duty to maintain order, and he may even employ soldiers for this purpose. The tenants on the saltus Burunitanus recognize their lowly condition in their petition to the emperor by speaking of themselves as. Inasmuch as they had the right to petition the emperor and had a magister, they evidently had a rudimentary political organization, but they had no form of local government. They did not even have the politcal rights which attributi enjoyed, because they were attached to no civitas. The fact that the domains were extra-municipal carried with it certain advantages as well as