A New Ancient Source about Roman Spain. The "Ars Gromatica Gisemundi" and the "Discriptio Hispaniae": Land Surveying Activities in Roman and Bizantine Period

Abstract

The recent edition of the Ars Gromatica siue Geometria Gisemundi, which is based on two manuscripts that date from the ninth century (mostly ACA Ripoll 106), has offered new data about the literature of the Roman land surveyors. A description of Spain’s provinces division in late Roman times (Discriptio Hispaniae), especially focused on the Carthaginiensis region, has been preserved in this work. The autor based this text on several unpublished ancient sources dating from the early empire to the byzantine period. The text mentions some land surveying activities and describes some specific works in order to delimitate territories that allow us to propose the existence of a type of provincial land surveying documentation that has remained unknown until now. In addition, the document provides new information about the Byzantine presence in Spania and the possible boundaries of their occupation.