Centuriation (in Latin centuriatio or, more usually, limitatioO. A. W. Dilke The Roman Land Surveyors, p. 134  , 1992 (1971), ), also known as Roman grid, was a method of land measurement used by the Romans. In many cases land divisions based on the survey formed a field system, often referred to in modern times by the same name. According to O. A. W. Dilke, O.A.W. Dilke The Roman Land Surveyors, p. 34 , 1992 (1971), centuriation combined and developed features of land surveying present in Egypt, Etruria, Greek towns and Greek countryside. Centuriation is characterised by the regular layout of a square grid traced using surveyors' instruments. It may appear in the form of roads, canals and agricultural plots. In some cases these plots, when formed, were allocated to Roman army veterans in a new colony, but they might also be returned to the indigenous inhabitants, as at Orange (France). A. Piganiol, Les documents cadastraux de la colonie romaine d'Orange, XVIe supplément à Gallia, Paris, 1962. History The Romans began to use centuriation for the foundation, in the fourth century BCE, of new colonies in the ager Sabinus, northeast of Rome. The development of the geometric and operational characteristics that were to become standard came with the founding of the Roman colonies in the Po valley, starting with Ariminum (Rimini) in 268 BCE. Umberto Laffi Studi di storia romana e di diritto, p. 415, 2001 , The agrarian law introduced by Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BCE, which included the privatisation of the ager publicus, gave a great impetus to land division through centuriation. Umberto Laffi op. cit. , p. 416 , 2001 Centuriation was widely used throughout Italy and also in some provinces. For example, careful analysis has identified, in the area between Rome and Salerno, 80 different centuriation systems created at different times. Giacinto Libertini, Persistenza di luoghi e toponimi nelle terre delle antiche città di Atella e Acerrae , 1999 He then traced the grid using an instrument known as a groma, tracing two road axes perpendicular to each other: the first, generally oriented east-west, was called decumanus maximus, which was traced taking as reference the place where the sun rose in order to know exactly where east was;  the second, with a north-south orientation, was called cardo maximus. However, Thrower points out that, unlike the later US system, "not all Roman centuriation displays consistent orientation". Norman Joseph William Thrower, " Maps & civilization : cartography in culture and society", The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1972 , p. 25 Traces of centuriation in Britannia (present-day southern and central Britain) Ripe, Sussex (probable) Worthing, Sussex (probable) Notes Bibliography In Italian: Umberto Laffi, Studi di storia romana e di diritto, 2001, In Catalan and Spanish: L'Avenç. Revista d'Història, núm. 167, febrer 1993. Dossier: "Els cadastres en època romana. Història i recerca", pàgs. 18–57. E. Ariño – J. M. Gurt – J. M. Palet, El pasado presente. Arqueología de los paisajes en la Hispania romana, Universidad de Salamanca – Universitat de Barcelona, Salamanca – Barcelona, 2004. In French: A. Caillemer, R. Chevalier, « Les centuriations de l'Africa vetus », Annales, 1954, 9–4, p. 433–460 lire en ligne A. Piganiol, « Les documents annexes du cadastre d'Orange », CRAI, 1954, 98–3, p. 302–310 lire en ligne André Chastagnol, « Les cadastres de la colonie romaine d'Orange », Annales, 1965, 20–1, p. 152–159 lire en ligne Col., « Fouilles d'un limes du cadastre B d'Orange à Camaret (Vaucluse) », DHA, 17–2, 1991, p. 224 lire en ligne Gérard Chouquer, François Favory, Les Paysages de l'Antiquité. Terres et cadastres de l'occident romain, Errance, Paris, 1991, 243 p. Gérard Chouquer, « Un débat méthodologique sur les centuriations », DHA, 1993, 19–2, p. 360–363 lire en ligne Claire Marchand, « Des centuriations plus belles que jamais ? Proposition d'un modèle dynamique d'organisation des formes », Études Rurales, 167–168, 2003, 3–4, p. 93–113 lire en ligne. L.R. Decramer, R. Elhaj, R. Hilton, A. Plas, « Approches géométrique des centuriations romaines. Les nouvelles bornes du Bled Segui », Histoire et Mesure, XVII, 1/2, 2002, p. 109–162 lire en ligne Gérard Chouquer, « Les transformations récentes de la centuriation. Une autre lecture de l'arpentage romain », Annales, 2008–4, p. 847–874.%DIFDELCMD < %DIFDELCMD < %%% In English:
Centuriation (in Latin centuriatio or, more usually, limitatioDilke The Roman Land Surveyors, p. 134 ) , also known as Roman grid, was a method of land measurement used by the Romans. In many cases land divisions based on the survey formed a field system, often referred to in modern times by the same name. According to O. A. W. Dilke, Dilke The Roman Land Surveyors, p. 34 centuriation combined and developed features of land surveying present in Egypt, Etruria, Greek towns and Greek countryside. Centuriation is characterised by the regular layout of a square grid traced using surveyors' instruments. It may appear in the form of roads, canals and agricultural plots. In some cases these plots, when formed, were allocated to Roman army veterans in a new colony, but they might also be returned to the indigenous inhabitants, as at Orange (France). Piganiol, Les documents cadastraux de la colonie romaine d'Orange, XVIe supplément à Gallia, Paris, 1962. History The Romans began to use centuriation for the foundation, in the fourth century BCE, of new colonies in the ager Sabinus, northeast of Rome. The development of the geometric and operational characteristics that were to become standard came with the founding of the Roman colonies in the Po valley, starting with Ariminum (Rimini) in 268 BCE. Laffi Studi di storia romana e di diritto, p. 415, 2001 The agrarian law introduced by Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BCE, which included the privatisation of the ager publicus, gave a great impetus to land division through centuriation. <ref>Laffi Studi di storia romana e di diritto , p. 416 </ref> Centuriation was widely used throughout Italy and also in some provinces. For example, careful analysis has identified, in the area between Rome and Salerno, 80 different centuriation systems created at different times. Libertini, Persistenza di luoghi e toponimi nelle terre delle antiche città di Atella e Acerrae He then traced the grid using an instrument known as a groma, tracing two road axes perpendicular to each other: the first, generally oriented east-west, was called decumanus maximus, which was traced taking as reference the place where the sun rose in order to know exactly where east was; Bell, Castra et urbs romana the second, with a north-south orientation, was called cardo maximus. However, Thrower points out that, unlike the later US system, "not all Roman centuriation displays consistent orientation". Thrower, Maps & civilization , p. 25 Traces of centuriation in Britannia (present-day southern and central Britain) Ripe, Sussex (probable) Worthing, Sussex (probable) %DIFDELCMD < %DIFDELCMD < %%% 
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Bibliography In Italian: Umberto Laffi, Studi di storia romana e di diritto, 2001, In Catalan and Spanish: L'Avenç. Revista d'Història, núm. 167, febrer 1993. Dossier: "Els cadastres en època romana. Història i recerca", pàgs. 18–57. E. Ariño – J. M. Gurt – J. M. Palet, El pasado presente. Arqueología de los paisajes en la Hispania romana, Universidad de Salamanca – Universitat de Barcelona, Salamanca – Barcelona, 2004. In French: A. Caillemer, R. Chevalier, « Les centuriations de l'Africa vetus », Annales, 1954, 9–4, p. 433–460 lire en ligne A. Piganiol, « Les documents annexes du cadastre d'Orange », CRAI, 1954, 98–3, p. 302–310 lire en ligne André Chastagnol, « Les cadastres de la colonie romaine d'Orange », Annales, 1965, 20–1, p. 152–159 lire en ligne Col., « Fouilles d'un limes du cadastre B d'Orange à Camaret (Vaucluse) », DHA, 17–2, 1991, p. 224 lire en ligne Gérard Chouquer, François Favory, Les Paysages de l'Antiquité. Terres et cadastres de l'occident romain, Errance, Paris, 1991, 243 p. Gérard Chouquer, « Un débat méthodologique sur les centuriations », DHA, 1993, 19–2, p. 360–363 lire en ligne Claire Marchand, « Des centuriations plus belles que jamais ? Proposition d'un modèle dynamique d'organisation des formes », Études Rurales, 167–168, 2003, 3–4, p. 93–113 lire en ligne. L.R. Decramer, R. Elhaj, R. Hilton, A. Plas, « Approches géométrique des centuriations romaines. Les nouvelles bornes du Bled Segui », Histoire et Mesure, XVII, 1/2, 2002, p. 109–162 lire en ligne Gérard Chouquer, « Les transformations récentes de la centuriation. Une autre lecture de l'arpentage romain », Annales, 2008–4, p. 847–874.
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