Il cippo di Perugia e i communalia etruschi. Nuovi elementi di riflessione

The cippus of Perugia represents a fundamental document for the study of land ownership in Etruria. The content of the epigraph reveals the existence of a complex system, in which land determined in terms of borders and extension, belonging to individual gentes, coexisted with a much larger territory, consisting mostly of pastureland, exploited collectively on the basis of a personal right of use recognised certis personis. These communal lands, called in Etruscan muni and communalia in the lexicon of the Roman land surveyors, differed profoundly, in terms of legal regime, from the Roman ager compascuus of the communia, closely related to the dominium ex iure Quiritium. The study of Etruscan communalia thus proves to be very important for understanding Italic and pre- Roman compascua.