Ipotesi per una tutela «amministrativa» dei parchi pubblici nel diritto romano

Abstract

Abstract - This paper firstly describes, though very briefly, the state of the studies and essays on general aspects of daily life in Roman age; among such studies, specific attention is given to how urban areas conceptually near to what we call nowadays “public parks” were conceived and enjoyed. To this regard, this paper explains the notion of “parco pubblico” (public park) that can be inferred both from the Italian (also in relation to the juridical usage) and from the Latin vocabulary (till Middle Age language), mostly in connection to specific uses of ‘hortus’. Then, the Roman notion is examined for what concerns its juridical relevance. Thus, the paper goes on by investigating the juridical regulations and a parallel defence that could be called administrative (concerning mainly penalties given by non-jurisdictional authorities) and judiciary in reference to such areas, and by showing how these aspects were at the origin entangled with divine law (in particular with the defence of sacred woods). Quite soon, namely already in the middle of the Republican age, as the conclusion of this paper shows, specific ways of defence in reference to the above mentioned areas can be found firstly inside the municipal body and then also in more general rules included in the Pretorian edict (mostly through interdicts), by such letting a specific town planning policy emerge, mostly from the middle of the Imperial age.